Lingering Trio
by Melodious Nocturne Demyx
Summary: Marluxia and Larxene went to Castle Oblivion with a mission that failed. Demyx was left behind and tried to befriend Sora as plan B and was killed in apathy instead. He didn't expect to wake up a somebody, but if he did, his two friends must have as well. His new mission: find the rest of his Trio. (First 3 chapters are short set up chapters)
1. Heartbroken

_"You're going to Castle Oblivion?"_

 _"The plan is about to begin."_

 _"Don't worry, we'll be back before you know it. Just don't blow your cover, k?"_

 _"Just… come back safe so I don't need to be undercover anymore, ok?"_

* * *

Demyx strummed his sitar in the grey room as usual. Xigbar normally would sit with him and make snarky remarks about the tune, but today was a busy day with most of the members on jobs. All except the member that everyone knew was too lazy and weak to actually get one done, that is.

"What do you mean they're DEAD?"

His fingers almost slipped off the strings as he was startled by the youngest member's outburst.

"The members assigned to Castle Oblivion were all terminated," Saix's calm voice stated.

It was getting harder to breathe, but Demyx strummed on, not allowing his relaxed demeanor to slip. According to every other member, Demyx hadn't gotten along with any members that had been sent off on the mission. Zexion and Vexen didn't appreciate his carefree ways, Axel spent all of his time with Roxas and Xion, Lexaeus was a good listener when Demyx played but they never made any conversation, and Marluxia and Larxene….

Demyx barely noticed when Roxas stormed out. He couldn't blame him. If he could, he would be running off too. His fingers continued moving, however, never letting the tune waver and reveal how terrified he was about the outcome of his friends mission.


	2. Return

_"What if you two fail? You know the basement trio isn't in on our goal, and Axel hasn't really made his motives all that clear…"_

 _"If we do, you'll have to try to make contact with Sora and ally with him directly."_

 _"You're a friendly guy. He'll take to you right away by what we've heard of him."_

 _"It won't come to that. Just stay here and warn us if you hear anything_."

* * *

Sora couldn't have just killed all of them…. He was one kid against six experienced members. Not to mention he was so friendly he would probably insist on befriending them even if they were all simultaneously trying to murder him. There had to have been a traitor amongst the group and then Sora must have killed him. But who?

Demyx was doing his usual thing, playing music absentmindedly. He couldn't figure out who could have done it. Axel was the most likely candidate as he was the only one without a friend there, but he wouldn't have let a kid kill him off like that…. unless…..

Of course the redhead strolled in as if nothing ever happened. Just when Demyx figured he had just ran off to never come back. Even without looking up he could tell Roxas was thrilled, eagerly introducing Axel to the 14th member he had recently befriended.

It was some sort of irony that while Demyx had lost both of his friends, Axel came back and gained another. He couldn't focus on what Axel was telling the two. Something about him deciding he wanted a vacation. No one noticed Demyx's tune becoming strained with pent up anger, because according to the others, none of them had any.


	3. The End

_"How would I even go about finding the kid? He jumps around worlds so often…"_

 _"Dumb luck. You've got plenty of that."_

 _"Thanks, Larx. That's so nice of you."_

 _"Relax. Nothing will happen."_

 _"You'd better be right, Marly."_

* * *

It had been a while since Larxene and Marluxia had been sent off to Castle Oblivion. Axel had come back, Roxas stormed off, Sora reappeared. And Demyx was back on Saix's radar and back out doing missions.

The best thing about Roxas had been his willingness to do Demyx's missions. Maybe if things had turned out differently on that mission Roxas would have joined the groups mission…

Trudging through the underworld sucked. He had already forgotten what Saix wanted him to do there… Something about Hades… But his mind had been so lost in thought that he didn't even need to act anymore.

When he finally stumbled upon Hades, Demyx didn't need a second signal to run. He was very much on fire and very angry and Demyx knew he was not about to become a pile of ash. Of course he passed someone when he was focusing on not dying, but he didn't stop to warn them about Hades. They were probably already dead or had a death wish being here, unlike him.

It wasn't until another hour later that he realized it wasn't just a random spirit he had passed by though.

"Roxas?" Demyx exclaimed, surprised of ever seeing the kid again after him abandoning the organization.

"Excuse me?" the kid asked, completely confused.

Sora! Not Roxas. He could have sworn he had been given a notecard on what to do if he stumbled upon him…

And of course it said to fight him. Which was a bad idea if he wanted to be allies. Not that the kid really gave him a choice, summoning his keyblade and attacking him.

After a decent enough fight with enough water clones to tire the kid out, Demyx took his leave. He had a decent excuse about why he couldn't finish the mission. Not to mention he wasn't sticking around when there was the looming threat of a very angry death god roaming around.

* * *

Xemnas and Saix found out about the failed mission from Castle Oblivion. If he didn't join with Sora he'd be eliminated by the organization. It was his only chance of finishing what his friends couldn't.

He didn't expect his next run in with Sora to be so soon, however. Or for it to start with Sora blatantly refusing his invitation to become allies. Or for him to be rude and refusing to listen about Nobodies growing hearts back. Or for the last thing Demyx saw to be Sora with his keyblade, expression set in disgust, as his hands slowly disappeared and vision faded to nothingness.


	4. Home

It felt like he was floating. Or at least like he was being gently buffeted by the ocean current. In fact, being dead felt a lot like when he took naps in the shallows when he was a Somebody.

Demyx opened his eyes and was greeted by familiar sea shells he had decorated his secret cove with and the sun's light being distorted by the waves twenty feet above him. Even his human world knick knacks were still here. He had been friends with the princess for such a short time before getting attacked yet she had still learned enough about him that she had given him several "musical instruments" which now he cringed at the thought of ever believing such things could make any sound considered music. A badly damaged candlestick and a smoking pipe certainly had never made any music that he knew of. The only thing that did was a small music box that still managed to work underwater.

He propelled himself off the sand, moves a bit awkward after having had legs for so long, and popped his head above the water. It was a shallow cove compared to some others so it wasn't too difficult. In fact, you could even see the palace from there, even though it was far off in the distance. He wished he had shown the princess this place before he died. She probably would have liked it considering how fast her interest in the humans had been growing.

It was only then that he even noticed he actually had some type of clothing on. He was a merman, he never had clothes. Looking down, he realized it was similar to the cloak all members wore. Just… sleeveless… and short… and really more like a vest with a hood. Obviously, like any other self respecting merman, he took it off and tucked it away in a hollow in the cliff that surrounded his hiding place so the water couldn't reach it. He didn't think the locals would respond well to it, seeing as it was obviously not from Atlantica, and he never knew when it could come in handy.

Demyx took a few experimental laps around his little hideout and once his body remembered it originally had a tail, he was off.

It hadn't taken as long as you'd think for him to forget what it was like. After only a few months as a Nobody he had almost forgotten the exact shade of deep blue his tail was or how a few scales glimmered a lighter sky blue when the light hit them. It had taken only another after that to forget how it felt to swim so fast and to trail his fingers on the water's surface as he swam right beneath it. Of course it only took a second to remember it all again.

He didn't even know where he was going. Part of him wanted to see if the merfolk he used to know where still the same, part of him wanted to visit the reef where he'd play with the fish and dolphins when they came around, and another part wanted to see the princess. Ariel would be thrilled to hear about his adventures as a human and all the worlds he had visited.

The palace was finally coming into view when the worst happened. Heartless. He didn't want to die again. He was finally his Somebody, something he never thought would happen again. They were just as quick as he remembered, and just as driven to chase any merperson that swam in their field of vision.

He wanted to turn tail and swim as fast as he could away, just as every other merperson was, yet he knew at least one or two would fall by the heartless. He couldn't let it happen to them. He had to stop it from happening. He needed Arpeggio.

A keyblade formed instead.

There was no time to process what was in his hands, just that it could beat the heartless away. He swung it into a heartless's head and didn't stop to watch its stolen heart to float away and vanish before he charged at the next.

It felt like it all happened in the blink of an eye. The next thing Demyx knew, the heartless were either all destroyed or had fled, and the merfolk had come out of their hiding places, cheering their thanks to him. It was hard to hear their praise when all he could focus on was the strange weapon in his hands.

It looked like Arpeggio. The handle was shaped like her base, leading up to her stem, and the top a rearranged version of the spikes, all aligned on one side as to mimic a three pronged key. But he didn't have a keyblade… Roxas did… Sora did..

When a hand clapped down on his shoulder, it vanished, and he was swept up into the stream of merfolk swarming him and thanking him for saving them. It hurt more than he thought it could that none of them recognized him, or that he didn't recognize them in return.

It wasn't too surprising that so much had changed over the past few years. The reefs they lived in seemed to have grown and their shape changed from new fish moving in, the seabed where the kids played was smaller than he remembered, and the ban on interacting with humans was lifted. He had hoped he could at least see Ariel, see at least one person hadn't changed, but she had changed the most. He had barely known her, yet she was unrecognizable to him. Demyx had caught a glimpse of her on a boat sailing above Atlantica, and she had legs.

He didn't stay to greet her. He doubted she had even noticed him. Or even remembered him, actually. They were both only fifteen or sixteen when they met, and now they were both twenty. A lot changed in that span of time and he didn't think she'd bother trying to remember some odd kid she knew that died before she went on her grand adventure that earned her legs.

It felt almost wrong to stay there. His memories that he had clinged to and expressed in his songs didn't match up with what was here now. He was a stranger in his own home world. Demyx couldn't even claim back his original name with this feeling. He thought being a Somebody again wouldn't feel so _painful_.

Of course. He was a Somebody again. The moment he had been killed by Sora, his heart and body had been able to rejoin. That meant the same had to have happened when the Castle Oblivion went south. He could find Marluxia and Larxene!

He really hoped going through a portal as a half fish wouldn't end terribly.


	5. Neverland

_"Soooo…. What world are you from, Marly?"_

 _"I'd rather not say."_

 _"Wow you're no fun. I told you what world I came from."_

 _"He's just embarrassed about-"_

 _"LARX DON'T YOU DARE_ "

* * *

He wished Larxene had been able to finish her sentence. Demyx didn't know what world to try searching first. Of course he could cross off certain worlds from his list. Marluxia had been assigned missions in Traverse Town, Agrabah to his hatred (too dry for his favourite flowers), Olympus Coliseum, Wonderland, and Hollow Bastian. And those were just off the top of Demyx's head. The organization had been adamant about not being assigned missions to your home world, or even visiting them for that matter. Only Luxord got away with it because no one could make sense of Wonderland, even the residents struggled often enough.

He finally reached his cove and began swimming lazy laps around it as he continued narrowing down worlds to the most likely. That left a few that he had been to, but also a few he'd never been assigned. There was one he had always wanted to go to because it sounded amazing for slacking off and getting a nap but…. no…. Marly wasn't a pirate. Still couldn't hurt to visit now that he didn't have Saix breathing down his neck not to mention that Mar might not be a pirate but Larxene… And she's the one who knew where Marluxia was from so finding her was a good place to start.

And in all seriousness, Demyx prayed that being half fish and traveling by portal wouldn't be a terrible idea. He had lucked out in how he somehow managed to wake up in a version of his coat, despite it lacking sleeves and the length, really resembling more of a hooded vest. Of course he had left it in his cove as he wasn't sure if the locals would recognize it, or just in general think he was odd for even having an odd human-made looking type piece of clothing. Or clothing in general.

He popped out of the water and felt for the little alcove in the cliff wall just above the waters highest tide level, unfortunately higher than what it was when he had put the cloak inside it. He really didn't want to add cloaklessness to the list of risks. Fortunately for him, he had only been searching a foot away from where it was and pulled it out.

Now back in what would hopefully protect some of him from the portal, he summoned it. He voiced another prayer to not end up flopping around on land with a tail, and swam through, destination: Neverland.

Demyx couldn't help but close his eyes when he swam into the portal. There was no telling what would happen and everyone knows nothing bad could possibly happen if your eyes were closed. Or at least everyone tells themselves that. He was so focused on chanting his mantra of "please don't let me be a floppy fish on land" that he didn't even notice he had arrived and left the portal for a few seconds. The water felt different. A bit warmer. It also seemed bluer somehow. The fish were certainly different from the ones at his reef.

He popped his head above the water. "Yup. This definitely isn't Atlantica." There was a huge island in the distance with a rainbow that seemed to never go away. "Didn't know there were also mermaids here… that could have been useful information…"

Demyx swam towards the island at an angle, trying to see if there was a place that was a more obvious merfolk friendly area where he could find others and ask around about this world.

It was pretty obvious when he saw it; a lagoon with plenty of rocks to perch on and a waterfall that made it look nice. It also helped that there was a group of mermaids scattered around on the rocks and swimming around. "Shouldn't take too long to see what's going on here…"

Except that it did. It doesn't help when a strange flying boy shows up out of nowhere and startles you with asking several questions like "Who are you?" "Why haven't I seen you around before?" "Are you in league with the pirates?" "I've never seen a boy mermaid here before." There wasn't even a long enough pause between questions for Demyx to answer. He could just float there, stunned at the boy's never ending flow of questions.

"Why are you here anyway?" the boy asked.

It took a moment for Demyx to respond, waiting for another question to quickly follow, "Oh… I'm looking for some friends of mine."

"A lot of people seem to be doing that lately," the boy responded.

"A lot of people have been separated," Demyx stated, still a little surprised he had a chance to answer.

"What do they look like?" the boy eagerly questioned. "More people have been coming here and they might have passed through recently."

"Well…" Demyx thought for a second, "One is a girl with blonde hair that kind of sticks up like antenna and she has a quick temper, the other is a guy with longer pink hair and he likes flowers."

The boy seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, absentmindedly flying in circles and higher and lower. "The girl sounds familiar… I think she showed up here the other day… And I think TinkerBell mentioned someone reappearing that she hadn't seen in ages with pink hair…"

Demyx's dumb luck seemed to have finally caught up with him. "Really?! Where were they last?"

The flying boy almost seemed surprised that his vague description matched enough for Demyx. "I think the girl was heading towards the pirate cove for some reason… I wouldn't be worried though. She had a fairy with her so she can just fly away if something bad happens."

Demyx barely had time to shout out a quick thanks before diving back under the water and swimming as fast as he could towards the boat he had seen earlier. In fact he could barely hear a brief warning of "Watch out for the Levia-" as he drew closer to where he hoped Larxene would be.

He swam closer to the shore, hoping for a quick glimpse of blonde or pink between the trees. Occasionally he'd see a light for a brief moment before it would disappear with a tinkle of bells. As he neared the pirate ship, he slowed and sank further under the waves, just the top of his head poking above them so he could watch for what he hoped would be his friends.

The first thing he saw was the light burst out from the trees and make a beeline for what had to have been the captain with a hat so ridiculous. What was presumably the first mate attempted to shoo the light away, only for it to fly out of reach with the most mocking of bell tinkles. It almost sounded like the light was insulting both of them. Before Demyx could decipher what the light was saying, he saw movement from the ship's hull.

It was just a quick glimpse, but he could have sworn he had seen a dark cloak whip around the side and up, landing on the deck and ducking down where the rail blocked the figure from his sight.

He swam closer, trying to hear better what was going on since he couldn't see anything being in the water. The light was getting easier to understand. He could make out the word "friend" and "captured" and "release or I'll" and what he could only assume were threats of violence.

Only a minute later and the figure was back in his sight, obviously not happy as they flew a mermaid down to the water from the back of the ship and darting back up yelling about hiding someone. Demyx could clearly make out that the cloak the figure wore was an organization one. And considering there had only been a few members left and Sora probably when on a tirade in the World that Never Was, he doubted that this person was on a mission for them. Especially since this seemed like a "destroy _then_ search" type deal with how pirates started getting hurled overboard slightly singed.

Demyx distanced himself again from the ship where pirates were vigorously being tossed off the deck and into the ocean. He wasn't going to get hit and didn't want an unfortunate pirate clinging to him. It was difficult to really make out what was going on as he was too far to hear what was being said, but he could vaguely make out the figure snatch the captain and get into his face in a very threatening manner.

After a moment of shaking him and him trembling, the figure tossed the captain aside and turned to the light. They exchanged a few words and gestures, and then the figure made a portal.

The figure cast one more look towards the island and out to sea, not catching sight of Demyx who was safely peeking at the ship from behind a rock, and took off their hood revealing blonde hair with antenna.

Demyx perked up immidiately. "LARX!" he shouted, quickly ducking under the waves and swimming as fast as he could toward the ship.

She didn't seem to hear him as first the light sped into the portal, and she followed. Demyx popped back up and slowed down. He knew she hadn't seen or heard him, and he unfortunately had no idea where she was going to go. The flying boy had tried to warn him about something, and he knew he didn't want to stick around and find out what it was.

He swam dejectedly back toward the rock he had been by earlier and pulled himself up on it. There were a few options: wait here and hope they return, try to guess what world Larxene would go to next, try to figure out Marluxia's home world.

It was impossible to do the last two things, but he couldn't just sit here. She had just come here and probably wouldn't come back without knowing he was here. Which she obviously didn't. He also didn't want to risk the thing that kid had been talking about to show up.

Maybe he could try to track down another keyblade weilder. He summoned the weapon again, still confused about why he had it. He certainly did like that it resembled his beloved sitar, even being larger than the keyblades he saw Roxas weild. But he doubted he could find Roxas. Even Axel said he hadn't been able to when the weilder first ran off.

Sora was out of the question. Last time he met him and tried to be friends, the kid attacked him and killed him even though he didn't know what would happen to Demyx when he was killed. There was a chance he would blindly attack again if Demyx showed up again, even if it was with a sign that said "I want to be friends."

There was Sora's friend he had heard about… but he wasn't sure if he had a keyblade as well or if he was just someone Sora was looking for. King Mickey had one, but it was probably him who told Sora to destroy the organization members.

Demyx sighed and let the keyblade vanish. He'd probably just wander around the worlds hoping to bump into his friends by chance. Which sounded like it would take a long time. And it was a long list of worlds. Then there were a few that were impossible to really navigate such as Wonderland.

WONDERLAND. That's where Luxord was. He was a sneaky guy, he probably had found out where Marluxia was from. It certainly was a good shot. Luxord had at least some dirt on everyone, and considering how tight lipped Marluxia was about his home world he could probably ask Luxord.

Demyx gleefully splashed back into the water and dove down, portal to Wonderland appearing. This had to be what guided him to meeting back up with at least one friend. He speeded through the portal imagining the reunion that he'd finally get after a full year and a half.


	6. Wonderland

Demyx knew it would be disorienting, but landing on his face wasn't exactly how he'd thought this would go.

"Legs… I know I abandoned you… but don't do this to me." he mumbled into the ground. He hadn't even taken but one step out of the portal for them to give out. His body was convinced it still had a tail.

He rolled over and sat up, looking around. He'd only been here a few times, and the best thing about the place was if you were sent here, you could find a nice place to nap fairly easily and even if someone was sent to find you, it would take hours. Then you'd have the excuse of "I got lost." Which of course no one bought after his seventh time. Even Roxas wasn't that bad. Lucky for Luxord enough of the times were genuine so he was assigned to his home world more than the other members were assigned to it.

"Where would he even be…?" Demyx muttered as he shakily stood up. He stretched his legs a few times and took a few cautious steps. "I reeeeaally don't want to go to the castle if I don't have to… that lady wanted to chop off my head just cause I was napping instead of something with birds..."

Demyx groaned at the searching he'd have to do. Luxord could be anywhere and this world tended to take you to the first place you wanted to go last. He figured he could check near the white rabbit's house first. That rabbit went so many places screaming about being late that he had to have seen him.

No surprise to Demyx, he walked for quite a long time before reaching the place. The path would somehow switch on him and he'd already visited the doorknob who hadn't seen either of his friends, to the queen's garden where the cards hadn't seen anyone, met a girl named Alice who was the only one who made any sense, but sadly she was also on the list of people who hadn't seen Marluxia or Larxene. There had been a very interesting flower garden he hadn't seen before that he knew Marluxia would love as the flowers actually talked back. Then again…. Marluxia might not like the fact they talked back as they could be pretty snarky. Larxene would love them as long as they weren't snarky to her.

Demyx was now walking on a path he was pretty sure led to the hatter's home, but the whole situation still made him want to cry out of frustration. He wasn't used to having such strong emotions after such a long time. Sure he had been growing his heart back, but at the most he'd be only a little angry, or just a touch sad. Not 'I want to punch that tree and scream and cry' type of feeling.

It was comforting to know that Larxene at least was ok, but seeing her leave and not knowing where she was… And he didn't even know where to start searching for Marluxia. He didn't want to think about it but the ache of his heart at not being with his friends wouldn't exactly let him forget that the two of them were out there somewhere.

Demyx reached a gate. There was the sound of badly off key singing, tea pots bubbling, and the clatter of china. He took a deep breath and pushed it open.

There were plenty of chairs for the whole organization at least, but he only saw that a few were taken. The tallest and closest chair occupied faced away from him and was a padded one you'd see in someone's house, not outside in the lawn. He approached it hoping that maybe this time he'd get some help, but a loud voice called out "TEA TIME" and a rabbit suddenly appeared out of no where and shoved him into a seat farther away and pushed him into it.

Suddenly laden with about three and a half tea cups in hand and two biscuts precariously balanced on their rims, he, as still as he could, turned to face the man sitting across from him who was trying to now give him some sugar.

"Have you seen a man named Luxord anywhere around here?"

"JAM you need some JAM for those tea cups! SWITCH SEATS!" the short man screamed, his head moving so fast that he almost lost his overly large hat.

Being jostled out of his seat, the teacups finally fell and he was shoved into another chair, this one next to the first one he had seen. He was finally able to see who was in it and nearly fell out of his new chair.

"Luxord!" he shouted.

"Why are you so surprised to see me? You've been looking for me, haven't you?" Luxord asked, shuffling a stack of playing cards in his hands. He wasn't in his cloak anymore, unlike Demyx. Instead, he had a dark green hat, thankfully a decent size unlike his loud companion, and a dark orange jacket.

Demyx took a second to reply, "Well yeah but I guess I just thought I never would in this place."

Luxord started to place the cards on the table to play solitaire like he would in the grey room. "It's only once you expect not to find something here that you will."

"Well that sounds extremely frustrating." Demyx stated.

Luxord didn't look up from his cards, "What did you want to find me for? Certainly not something for the organization. Last I know of them, Sora only had Xemnas to challenge."

Demyx almost didn't want to ask so he wouldn't be disappointed. "I'm looking for Marluxia and Larxene."

Luxord's eyebrows went up, "Well that certainly wasn't expected. Looking for me as a way of looking for them. Not to mention it wasn't exactly a secret they disliked you."

He shifted a bit in his seat at that remark, "Yeah… but have you seen them?"

"I have not." Luxord finished his game and gathered the cards up again to reshuffle.

"... do you know where they might be?" Demyx prodded.

"Marluxia is from Neverland, and unfortunetly Larxene was even more tight lipped than him about her home world."

Demyx slouched into the chair, "I was just there, though…"

"Unless you sprouted legs I doubt you'd be able to properly search the island." Luxord stated as he laid out the cards again.

Demyx's eyes slowly narrowed and a face of exaggerated suspicion formed, "How would you know about that?"

He finally glanced up at Demyx, eyebrow quirked, "It isn't exactly hard to figure out."

Demyx sighed, "Yeah ok. But either way, I was just there and only briefly saw Larxene before she left again. Do you at least have a suggestion about where to go next?"

Luxord stopped playing his game and crossed his arms, thinking. "It's difficult to say without a motive to trace. I would say start with the bigger ones we'd been assigned the most." With that he waved his hand and summoned a portal. "That should take you to Agrabah. I doubt Marluxia would like it there but it's a decent world to ask around. Certainly less confudling than this one."

Demyx glanced at the portal and stood up, "You wanna come with? I mean, I don't want to be in the organization again but…"

Luxord thought about it for a moment and returned to his game, "Maybe at some point I'll travel through the worlds. Port Royal was rather fun. For the moment though, I'm rather content being here. I'd forgotten what it feels like to actually be home."

"Maybe I'll see you there then." he smiled.

Luxord smiled back and went back to his game, "Perhaps you will."

Demyx waved and walked into the portal, away from the most exhausting of worlds.


	7. Agrabah

Demyx was hit with the dry heat the moment he stepped out of the portal. Agrabah was still just as hot and just as sandy as always. It wasn't that great for napping as warm is one thing, but baking was another, especially with long black cloaks. Water powers were useful to have, but the climate made it a touch harder to use.

He walked through the streets, the crowd just forming for the stalls. It was then that it struck Demyx that he didn't really know who to ask. Perhaps he could stop one of the people bustling around, but chances of them knowing anything were slim. The only chance he had was someone saw someone in a cloak like his; they certainly were different than what the locals wore.

He weaved his way between the people crowding around the stalls. These people knowing anything was low, their focus solely on their needs and the sales. The guards were a good chance as their entire job entailed watching people and looking for oddities. Demyx just hoped he didn't count as one that warranted an arrest.

"Excuse me," Demyx approached a guard. "Would you have happened to see someone recently wearing a cloak like mine?"

The guard looked him over with an intense stare and gave a brief nod, "One just that way." He gestured with a nod of his head to the next street.

Suddenly feeling a great wave of hope, Demyx couldn't let out a cheer and shouted his thanks as he ran off. He barely made the turn, smile stretched across his face, and suddenly skidded to a stop, smile replaced with one of silent panic.

Before he was spotted, Demyx hurled himself back around the corner and pressed himself up against the wall. He steadied himself with a few deep, albeit shaky breaths, and peeked around the edge.

There were two faces he recognized. He saw a girl with red hair and a pink dress, Kairi, and what really caused him panic, the person who had refused to listen to anything he told him and who had killed him in sheer apathy: Sora.

"I really hope Marly and Larx are ok…" Demyx muttered. He didn't know how to proceed… According to the guard there had been someone in a cloak like his farther down that street, yet were the chances that this person was one of his friends high enough to risk being ended much more permanently?

"There you guys are! I thought we were meeting back up closer to the palace."

Demyx eyes widened. He knew who the other cloaked person was.

Axel walked up to the group, accompanied by a silver haired boy in a yellow vest.

"Yeah and then we agreed farther away, Axel," Sora responded. "Even you said this place was better."

Axel was with Sora. And he wasn't dead. In fact, Sora sounded like he was _friends_ with him. What had Axel done so differently that Sora greeted him with open arms and Demyx with a keyblade to the face?

"So how did your training go, Kairi?" the silver haired boy asked.

She laughed, "Probably better than Axel's, Riku."

Axel huffed, "It's all in the flick of the wrist." He then dramatically held out his hand and flicked his wrist, his chakrams forming. "Wait… wait…" The chakrams disappeared, and he repeated the movement, this time with success. A keyblade, the handle like his chakram with the blade formed by flames, appeared.

Demyx couldn't believe what he was seeing. Axel had one too. He ducked back around the corner and retreated as quietly as possible. Was the keyblade why Sora was ok with Axel? If he approached them and said "Hi. I know you killed me out of sheer hatred, but I have a keyblade. Can we be friends now?" would it even work?

He didn't dare try. Demyx didn't need to become allies with Sora when he had his own keyblade. If he found Larxene and Marluxia, they could continue their efforts without Sora. The unknown variable would be removed from the equation and their lives were safer without the risk of Sora going rogue and killing them again.

Then there was Axel. Demyx had no way of knowing if he was still a Nobody or if he had also been killed and returned to being a Somebody. They had used his organization name, his original name scrambled and an X added, but he couldn't go just by that. It could be that the others were just used to calling him Axel. There was also the possibility that Axel didn't feel right using his real name after so long, like Demyx did.

Demyx wandered down the streets, trying to figure out his next move. He could approach Axel and ask for help finding his friends, a risky move considering Axel had a hand in their deaths at Castle Oblivion. He also could move on to another world and hope to not bump into them again; safer, but he'd certainly be on his guard all the time.

He pulled his hood up, feeling the sun baking his neck and scalp. It was a little stifling, but he'd rather suffer a little bit now than be burned for the next week. Seeing an alcove in the building ahead, he jogged a bit closer and nestled inside. It was plenty roomy, and most importantly, provided shade. He wasn't too fond of blindly picking another world and jumping off to it, and even as a Nobody he needed rest.

It also gave him time to stop thinking and do what helped him calm down the best: Arpeggio. He summoned her and chuckled at the light sound that she made as she formed, like a babbling brook. She hadn't been in his hands for what felt like forever. He hadn't had the chance to play her for a good few weeks before he tried to talk to Sora and got killed. And he had then gotten so preoccupied trying to find his friends that he had forgotten about playing her and taking a break.

Not even a full phrase was played and he was already back in the zone, playing whatever his fingers thought sounded best. This was the biggest comfort he had, and comfort certainly was something he needed right now.

He was feeling the calmest he had been since this whole endeavor started when his panic spiked again. Arpeggio faded back into mist and Demyx bolted back upright. Heartless had appeared and the crowd was scattering. His mind gave him two immediate options: stay and fight, or leave before Sora appeared.

Of course his brain was yelling FLIGHT- save himself, yet his heart knew he had to fight for the people who were running in fear. Steeling himself for the chance Sora showed up before he could finish the heartless and leave, Demyx summoned the keyblade with a twitch of his fingers.

Heartless would be defeated in but a moment, only for more to spring up in their place. It seems like he unfortunately got here when a hoard had weaseled it's way into the world. Demyx let out a frustrated groan as a few tougher heartless appeared from the shadows. He wasn't used to fighting so close up, and keyblades, even with water magic, were still a closer range weapon than his sitar.

It was awkward, not knowing what footing or stances were best for attacking or blocking, relying entirely on instinct. When he was able to use water to blast an enemy away, he still knew he had to get back up close to it to finish it with what would keep it gone.

He paused and backed up from the fight. Such a large group of heartless and no experience with the keyblade was a terrible idea. He looked down at the keyblade gripped in his hand. Despite not knowing what he was doing, he couldn't stop. The people in the area were still at risk if he didn't finish them off.

Demyx tightened his hold on the keyblade and was about to rush the heartless again when a flaming chakram flew past him and whacked a heartless that had been about to lunge at Demyx. He whipped his head around to see Axel charging into the battle, followed by the silver haired boy the others had called Riku.

He knew that if Axel and Riku were here, Sora and Kairi couldn't be far off. The keyblade in his hand vanished as he backed away, Axel running past and summoning his. Demyx knew now was his best opportunity to leave, yet he stayed, watching how Riku positioned himself to best attack and block. It was obvious he had been able to fight with the keyblade for a while and even watching could at least give Demyx an idea of the best ways to use it.

Of course he didn't get more than a few suggestions before the fight was over. He had been so focused on studying Riku's fighting form that he didn't notice Axel making his way towards him until he was already halfway to him. Demyx startled as Axel held up his hand as a wave.

"Hey! I saw a quick glimpse of a keyblade there. You're obviously not any ranking member before me cause they're all back home and ditched the cloaks so… what number are-"

Demyx didn't give him the chance to see his face any better. He summoned a portal and blindly lunged into it.


	8. Dwarf Woodlands

"...are you…" Axel's sentence trailed off and his hand fell back to his side. "Well they were in a hurry."

Riku finished off the last heartless and approached Axel, "Who was that?"

Axel shrugged, "Obviously not numbers 3 through 6. They're on their homeworld."

"Who does that leave?" Riku wondered.

"Well… Xigbar and… they're kinda with Xehanort and probably won't just show up… There's Luxord but I mean he wouldn't just run like that." Axel scratched the back of his head in thought, "If it was Larxene, we would _know_ it was Larxene… Demyx is a runner but only if he's in danger and, well… I don't think he'd _ever_ get a keyblade with his cowardice… So I guess that leaves Marluxia."

Riku looked at the place where the figure had vanished from, "He's the one that tried to control Sora in Castle Oblivion, right?"

Axel nodded, "It would make sense. I did kinda help get him killed and if he's up to something I don't think he'd wanna risk it again."

Riku's eyes narrowed with determination, "We should tell Sora and Kairi and find out what Marluxia's scheming."

* * *

Trees with scary faces were _not_ what Demyx was hoping for. This taught him for blindly opening a portal, even if it was to save his skin. He could swear those trees were laughing and plotting to eat him. Those branches were reaching for him and snatching at his jacket.

Running as fast as he could, he ducked and weaved through the branches, panic growing with every new pair of sinister glowing eyes. Where did he even end up? He had never been assigned this place and he wished he never discovered that it existed.

His hood got snagged on a particularly strong branch and he was yanked back, terror peaking to the point of ripping his hood away from the hand clawing at him and tripping over a root as he turned. Demyx landed with a thud hard enough to wind him.

He curled up as small as he could, trying to breath again which, even if he wasn't winded, would be hard enough with all the panic he was feeling. All he could manage were sharp shallow breaths that barely dragged in any oxygen.

Demyx squeezed his eyes shut and waiting for the trees to eat him, but even after a few minutes when he had caught his breath, it didn't happen. He warily opened his eyes and looked back up and saw that the eyes from the bushes were moving towards him, shadows slipping away and revealing a small rabbit.

It slowly stepped toward him, pausing occasionally to twitch its nose, and eventually sat a few inches from his face. Demyx just stared at it and then noticed a few other sets of eyes were doing the same thing. A deer stepped out of the shadows along with a few squirrels and a fox. Birds even hopped down to lower branches.

Clouds were moving away from the sun and shed more light into the forest where Demyx saw that the faces he had seen were oddly shaped knots in the wood of the trees. It was almost like the forest had thought him a threat and put on an illusion of terror, and once it realized it was terrifying someone who meant no harm, let it melt away into a beautiful forest that gave off a comfting feeling.

After getting his breathing and shaking limbs back under control, Demyx sat up and looked at the animals. "That wasn't fun."

The animals almost looked guilty. The rabbit pulled at his coat with its mouth and ran a few feet away, looking back at him.

Demyx sighed and stood up, "I'm guessing you're trying to apologize?"

The rabbits nose twitched again before it hopped down a faint path. After a moment, Demyx followed as the other animals disapeared back into the forest.

After only a few minutes of walking, the rabbit led him to the edge of a clearing and darted back into the woods. Demyx could see a cottage in the middle of it. It looked like it was either far off, or just small. As he walked closer, he saw that it was the latter.

He knocked. If anything, Demyx figured he could ask about Marluxia and Larxene before leaving to another world. He hadn't entirely intended to come here, and after seeing how it greeted its visitors, he didn't want to come back again.

The door opened and a young girl opened the door. "Hello. Can I help you?" she asked.

Demyx shuffled his feet a bit awkwardly, "I'm just passing through, but I was wondering if you had seen some friends of mine. One is a girl with blonde hair that looks like antenna and another is a boy with shoulder length pink hair."

The girl's expression turned a bit sad, "I'm so sorry but I haven't."

He sighed, "I figured. Couldn't hurt to ask though."

The girl smiled, "Would you like to come in? Dinner will be done soon and the dwarves love having company."

Demyx blinked in surprise, "Oh…" His stomach growled and he chuckled, "Well I guess my stomach says I should."

She giggled and moved aside so he could come in, "My name's Snow White."

He smiled back at her, "I'm... I'm Demyx."

* * *

It wasn't long until the dwarves were back and he quickly learned how Snow White had been kidnapped in the past. Apparently the world was so fond of her that after, it would try to chase off any newcomers in fear that it was another person coming after her.

Snow White seemed troubled by his story, "I'm so sorry that happened to you. You're such a nice person I don't see how the woods could think you'd harm me."

Demyx finished his plate and put his fork down, "It's fine. I probably should be used to this by now."

"Not here, anymore. I'll make sure the woods treat you nicely." she said with determination.

Finished with his food and ready to search for his friends again, Demyx stood up, "Well it was nice to meet you."

Snow White clapped her hands together, "Of course! Be sure to visit any time!"

Demyx left the cottage with goodbyes from the dwarves and the princess and made his way to the woods again. After what they had done when he first arrived, Sora didn't seem quite as terrifying to face. He knew that if it came down to it, he'd be able to get away. One boy was much easier than an entire forest of trees clawing at you.

He rolled his shoulders and stretched a bit. "Where to next…?" His eyes brightened as he decided on a world. "Xaldin said there were musical cutlery… let's try there."

A portal opened and Demyx stepped through hoping for a different rose than the one in the mission report Xaldin had turned in after his first visit.


	9. Beast's castle

As he stepped out of the portal, he heard a gasp and turned and gasped himself. There was a person. He didn't look like a piece of furniture. They stared at each other for what seemed like a few minutes and without warning, the man shouted, "A GUEST!"

Demyx jumped a bit as more people appeared and sung a song about loving having guests, causing him to grin from ear to ear (it was quite catchy), and ushered him to a room as the first man with a thick accent declared, "You look exhausted! You simply _must_ spend the night."

He tried to ask him about his friends, only for him to insist, "No no no, you need sleep first. We can answer your questions in the morning. I can't let you stand there when you look dead on your feet and need rest."

With that, the door closed behind him and he was greeted with the very tempting sight of a large, soft looking bed. Demyx resisted for exactly nine seconds before running at full speed and jumping onto it. The bounce he made as he landed was certainly something he approved of, but the way he sank into it was even better.

He barely managed to take off his cloak and boots before scooting under the blankets and falling asleep.

A stained glass window. Well… more like a stained glass floor. He had been here before once… right after Sora killed him. But he had forgotten about it mostly. All he ever really recalled was that there was stained glass. It showed him. He was sitting, his keyblade in his hand, and his eyes were closed. In the circles in the middle of the window showed Marluxia and Larxene, along with a few decorative shells similar to ones in his cove in his homeworld. The circles around the edge showed the other members, including a black haired girl he couldn't recall Blue was everywhere and it was calming, not being fully aware and being washed over by the windows pale blue light.

He could hear someone say something to him, but he could never make out what was being said.

His dream shifted as he landed on the window, the pieces disappearing under his feet into ocean waves. As the waves settled over him, he saw Marluxia. His lips were moving, but the water dampened the words. Larxene moved out from behind him and she tried to say something as well.

The two started to drift away from him, despite Demyx trying to reach out to them and he finally made out two words from Marluxia.

Demyx bolted awake. His dream was slipping away. He could still see the stained glass window, and he saw Marluxia and Larxene, but the two words were just out of grasp.

He flopped back into the pillow and covered his face with his hands, trying to recall those two words that could tell him where to go next. He tossed around for a good hour until the sun rose and lit up the room.

A knock at the door signaled for him to give up for the moment and try again later as he was getting no where now. "AAAAAHHH monsuir, you are awake! Please join the Master and his Princess for breakfast! They are most eager to help with what you need!"

The man left again and Demyx was alone with this thoughts. If he could just jog that memory out of his skull, he'd be golden. He huffed and swung out of the bed, seeing that his cloak had been taken during the night. That wasn't exactly replaceable. It's the only thing that kept him safe when he portaled, even as a Nobody. If he was to keep searching, he would need to find it.

Demyx was ready to run out of the room in search of his cloak when a servant bustled her way into the room, "WELL look at how WONDERFUL of a day this is! It's so NICE no longer being a wardrobe, honey, although I could have given you something MUCH better than this coat you wear. All I could do for you was mend it. Whatever you've been doing must have been DIFFICULT with all the tears littered around on it."

He calmed down as he saw that she really had mended his cloak. The tears hadn't even been noticed by him in his panic to get away from the trees and his rush to find Larx and Mar. "Thanks a lot," he said as he looked back up at her.

She smiled and left again, seeming very determined to stroll throughout the entire castle as she was no longer furniture. Demyx looked back to his cloak and put it on before leaving his room.

He arrived to the dining room still a little frustrated at himself for losing the clue to finding Marly and Larx, but also eager to see if the rulers of this world could help.

Demyx had expected a beast. A large bear looking creature with horns and fangs. He was pleasently surprised to see someone who didn't look like he could rip Demyx to pieces with one bite. It was almost a staple feature for every world.

"Lumire explained that you came late last night seeminly in search of something," the prince said.

He sat down to the chair that Lumire gestured him to, "I was separated from my friends and I've been trying to find them."

The girl who must have been the princess frowned, "You have no idea where they might be?"

Demyx sighed and shook his head, "They're moving through the worlds too and I'm trying to catch up with them."

The prince spoke as breakfast was served, "And there's no telling if or when they'll come to a world if you were to pick one and stay there."

"Exactly," Demyx nodded. "There's also the fact staying in one place is a touch risky as I'm trying to avoid bumping into another group traveling around."

The princess's expression turned cautious, "Which group is this?"

Demyx nervously answered, sure Sora had earned himself a glowing reputation on every world, "Sora…"

Both the prince and princess's expressions grew surprised.

"Sora? He couldn't be someone you'd need to avoid. He even saved Belle." the prince stated.

She nodded, "Yes. He was also the one who'd show up here and clear out the heartless." Belle turned back to Demyx, "Why are you trying to…" Belle noticed what Demyx was wearing and her expression turned wary, "You're one of those troublemakers that caused all that chaos around here."

"I wasn't a part of them really. My friends and I were Nobodies then, yes, but we knew what was going on and tried to stop it. When their mission failed, I tried to become allies with Sora but he wouldn't listen and killed me instead," Demyx gloomily explained as he slouched in his seat.

Belle's expression gained an element of shock, "Not Sora, surely."

"I get it, he's a great kid killing heartless and all that. It's just easier if I avoid confrontation all together and focus on finding Marluxia and Larxene," he sighed.

The prince seemed to remember something, "One didn't happen to be a boy with pink hair, are they?"

Demyx immediately perked up, "Yes! Did they pass by here?"

Belle seemed to recall the event as well, "I believe he was with a girl with blonde hair."

He quickly stood up, "Where did they go?"

The prince shook his head, "They didn't say where they were headed. The boy seemed fairly lost in thought and the girl was muttering about being disappointed the world was no longer enchanted.

"Enchanted…." Demyx whispered.

He could hear the words Marluxia had faintly spoken in his dream " _-Enchanted Domain"_

A grin slowly spread across his face as the clue he needed finally appeared, "That's IT! Thank you so much! I've got to go before I lose them again!" Demyx frantically said his goodbyes to the staff and the prince and princess and hurried down the hall where he could make a portal away from the locals.

"I finally know where you are!" he exclaimed as he ran into a portal.


	10. Enchanted Domain

The Enchanted Domain was, well… enchanting. Demyx was in a beautiful forest, sunshine filtering through the trees and birds singing. He took his time wandering through. It was much more calming than the last one, and there was a certain musical quality about it. In fact, it almost sounded like someone _was_ singing.

He paused and tried to pinpoint where it was coming from and followed it. At the source of the singing was a pretty girl, dancing around the clearing while animals listened. It was too hard to resist. Demyx summoned Arpeggio and started following her tune.

After a moment, she finally realized she was being accompanied and stopped, spinning around in shock as she saw Demyx.

"Uhh.. sorry," Demyx awkwardly stopped strumming. "Your song was too pretty to not play along with."

The girl stared at him for a moment before saying, "I probably should be going… I was told not to talk to strangers and well…" She rushed to pick up her things.

"Oh… Hey before you go, have you seen-" Demyx stopped as she had already disappeared behind the trees. He let Arpeggio vanish again. "Well, if she's that wary of strangers I doubt she'd have seen them anyway…"

He continued on. In his dream Marluxia had said they'd be in the Enchanted Domain. Or at least, he had named the world and Demyx hopefully took that as a sign they'd be here. _Where_ in this world, exactly, was the question. He wished that Marly had at least given him a landmark to meet with them at.

At the edge of the forest, it was easy to see a castle in the distance. Where there was a castle, there would surely be people. Where there were people, there may be a sighting of his friends or maybe even the two of them waiting at the gate for him.

Demyx walked down the path out of the forest and to the castle. It shouldn't take too long to get there, and he was sure that he'd soon see his friends. He started humming the tune the girl had been singing out of joy.

* * *

He had asked nearly everyone in the castle about the two friends he had lost. No one had seen either, but said they'd keep a look out for him. It was a nice sentiment, but Marly and Larx had probably already passed through. It figured the moment he had gotten a location he'd miss them again. Demyx walked through the castle gates, dejected. Maybe he could check in the woods again.

He'd only made it down half the path when a portal opened up nearby. Demyx snapped his head to it, hoping he'd see a certain familiar pair of faces walk through, but was surprised to see who did.

"Xiggy…! What're you doing here?!" Demyx exclaimed. He had occasionally wondered what had happened to the other members but figured they'd have gone home.

"Hey there Demyx! I figured I'd drop by and see how you're doing." Xigbar had a tone to his voice that was almost… threatening.

Demyx had a little voice in his head saying that something was wrong, but… it was Xigbar. They certainly weren't close, but he had been his only friend after the Castle Oblivion mission failed. "How'd you know I'd be here?"

"Oooh, just had a feeling." Xigbar started walking closer to Demyx, "I heard a little rumor that you got yourself a new weapon and I was hoping you'd show it to me."

"Uh… I don't know what you're talking about," Demyx nervously responded.

Xigbar chuckled, "Come on Demyx, don't act dumb. I figured out that you weren't stupid when you ran off to become friends with Sora. How'd that turn out, by the way?"

The nervous feeling churned in Demyx's stomach, "I think you know what happened."

"HA you know I did. Of course he didn't listen to you and just off'd you then and there. What did you expect would happen? Everyone knew how useless and dumb you were, even Sora!" he exclaimed.

Demyx was feeling small, "Well… it was good to see you Xigbar but I've gotta-"

Xigbar's hand landed on Demyx's shoulder, keeping him from leaving. "Go find your precious friends? Come on, Demyx. It's been how long now? You aren't still clinging to that friendship are you? They're perfectly fine without you, In fact, who's to say they've been making sure to leave before you even have to chance to catch up with them?"

He stopped. Demyx knew Xigbar was trying to get to him, and it was working. For all he knew, they had been avoiding meeting back up with him. Maybe the whole time they thought he was useless and told him to stay away from them and act like they weren't friends because they _weren't_ friends. They could have been planning to never see him again the whole time. "But… they wouldn't… they said…"

"What?" Xigbar sneered. "Hey let's all meet on this world and be buddies again? No Demyx. Why would they bother doing that?"

Demyx wrapped his arms around himself, "You don't know that…"

Xigbar chuckled, "Of course I do. I know a lot of stuff. I know your two _amigos_ have been avoiding you just like I know that you've managed to get yourself that keyblade."

Demyx didn't turn to look at Xigbar, "And why would you care? You already said no one would want to be around me."

His tone of voice softened a touch but it still sounded… slimy, "That isn't true, Demyx. Why do you think I came here?"

"To laugh at me?" Demyx mumbled, still hugging himself.

"Nah. I came to get you. Marluxia and Larxene don't want you, but we're still friends."

Demyx finally turned to look at Xigbar. He seemed genuine but that voice was still saying something was wrong. "Are we?" he asked.

Xigbar held out his hand. "Of course we are. Come with me. I know someone who could teach you how to use that keyblade of yours better."

His gaze lingered on the hand Xigbar had extended. It was tempting. Marly and Larx had rejected him, but Xiggy still liked him. He'd even help with the keyblade. Demyx hesitated. If he went with him, he'd be rejecting Larxene and Marluxia completely. What if they hadn't meant it though, or maybe Xigbar misheard…

Xigbar's face twisted into annoyance, "Come one Demyx. Is it that hard of a choice? I'm the only friend you have. Are you coming or not?"

Demyx looked up from his hand and to his eyes. They were such a harsh shade of yellow. He looked down and his eyebrows pinched together. If he went with Xigbar he wouldn't be alone anymore. The search would be over, he'd have a friend. But it wouldn't be his two closest. He squeezed his eyes shut. Marluxia and Larxene… he opened them, tears threatening to escape if he blinked again. Marluxia and Larxene weren't his friends. Xigbar had heard it himself.

It seemed like Xigbar's patience ran out, "Fine. We'll do this the hard way."

Demyx was torn out of his thoughts as Xigbar's hand clamped onto his wrist and yanked him forward a few steps. He looked up at Xigbar whose face had gone hard and cold as he opened a portal. That face scared Demyx. Xigbar started dragging Demyx behind him as he walked toward the portal.

"NO." Demyx shouted as he ripped his wrist out of Xigbar's grasp.

Xigbar turned around, his expression now angry. "What?" he asked, cold and annoyed.

Demyx shrank at the way Xigbar glared at him and he muttered, "No…"

"I'm not giving you a choice, Demyx," Xigbar reached out to grab Demyx again and he darted out of the way.

"I'm not going with you," he shakily stated, backing away. He hugged himself tightly, trying to be smaller as Xigbar's glare sharpened.

"If it's going to be that way…" Xigbar threateningly trailed. His two guns appeared in his hands.

Demyx's eyes widened. That voice had been right about the situation being wrong, and now it was right telling him to _run_. As Xigbar aimed his gun, Demyx held out a hand behind him.

Xigbar took his shot as Demyx stumbled back into a portal.

* * *

"DEMYX!" Marluxia shouted. He ran down the path from the cliff overlooking the road to the castle as fast as he could, Larxene at his heels.

"WHY YOU I'M GONNA-" Larxene tripped over a branch and quickly caught herself.

The two of them had been hoping to bump into Demyx on this world and after hours of searching through the woods where he would be sure to be lured to with the calming air and music from the birds, they had found themselves witnessing Xigbar trying to take him away through a portal, which Demyx clearly didn't want.

They sped down and out of the woods where Xigbar looked displeased.

"Tch. He got away," he grumbled. He looked up when he saw the two rushing out of the forest. "HA," he exclaimed. Xigbar gestured to the two of them, gun still in hand, "Speak of the devil! We were just talking about you two."

Marluxia and Laraxene slowed to a stop as they stood twenty feet in front of Xigbar.

"What did you say to him?" Larxene growled as she summoned her knives.

"OOOH scary," Xigbar mocked. "I didn't tell him anything. Just that you two obviously have been avoiding him. Did you realize he had such low confidence in himself?" He chuckled, "I mean it was bound to happen. After people talk down to you and say you're weak for so long… Especially when your two friends aren't there to have your back."

Marluxia clenched his fists, "What do you want with him, Xigbar? You've got nothing to gain from this."

"I have _everything_ to gain from this. I mean, this kid has a low enough self esteem that only a tiny conversation like that had him questioning his worth. Add to that a certain useful weapon and, well. How am I supposed to leave him alone?"

A scythe appeared in Marluxia's hand and Larxene started to spark with electricity.

Xigbar cocked his head, "As much fun as it would be, I don't have any actual reason to stick around anymore. Demyx left and he was my only target." His guns disappeared and a portal formed behind him. "Maybe I'll see you around though!" he laughed as he stepped through it.

Larxene lunged at the portal, aiming a few of her knives at it, only for it to disappear before she could reach it and go after Xigbar.

Marluxia let his scythe vanish, knowing they had to forget Xigbar at the moment. Demyx was out there somewhere and was in a dangerous state, thinking both of his friends had abandoned him and most likely in a state of fear and hurt.

"We need to go," he calmly said, anger still detectable on the edge of his voice.

"We _need_ to teach that creep a lesson!" Larxene snarled.

Marluxia took a deep breath, "We do, but first we need to find Demyx. Who knows what Xigbar said to him or how distraught he is right now."

Larxene's furious expression melted into one of realization, "Oh no…" Her knives faded and her eyebrows furrowed into concern. "Where would we even find him? We've searched all of the world's he'd most likely go…"

He stood there, trying to think of a place Demyx would go for comfort. "Perhaps his homeworld? Or maybe one with water… Fantasia is full of music he might find comforting…"

The two looked at each other, concern for Demyx mixing with the worry of how they could find him again.


	11. Atlantica

Demyx swam through the water. He couldn't bear to go home where no one had bothered to remember him, but being in the water, having a tail, it was too comforting. His tail propelled him around the reef he had found and he tucked himself into a smaller opening. Curling up his tail as tightly as he could and folding himself up at small as possible, he huddled in the small comforting alcove. After only a few minutes, exhaustion took him over and he fell asleep.

* * *

Marluxia and Larxene swam out of the portal and into a familiar world. They had been there once before after Larxene had finally found Pixie Hollow in Neverland, and Demyx's homeworld was their first world searching for him. There, they had found themselves with tails. Larxene's closely resembled an electric eel, yellow tinted with yellow spots, suiting her powers, whereas Marluxia's was a light pink and similar to that of a halfmoon betta fish with a flower petal looking fin. Their cloaks had stayed with them, thankfully, but were short and sleevless.

Larxene shuddered, "Are you sure he'll even have come here? When we asked around no one had remembered him… and I don't really want to stay here longer than we need to, having a tail is just… odd."

Marluxia started swimming toward the town, "It could merely have been that Demyx had been absent for so long. He did mention that it had been years since he had died."

She didn't seem so confident, "I dunno… you'd think if a kid died people would remember and at least be a little shocked if he showed back up again."

"...You may be right, but this is his homeworld. We have to at least consider he'd have a place here that he'd go to first." Marluxia determined.

Larxene slowed to a stop, "He wouldn't go into town."

"What do you mean?" Marluxia asked, slowing and turning around to face her.

Her eyebrows pinched together, "We already figured out no one remembers him. If he's upset about thinking we rejected him, why come to a place full of it."

"That is a good point…We'll have to look elsewhere." He looked around their surroundings, "He was a kid… he must have made a secret base around… somewhere…"

The two headed off toward the bigger landmarks.

"So we've got a seabed full of shipwrecks, but by what we've heard that place is full of sharks. Not a good place for a base, but if he was a kid, he might have. He's fast with legs so he'd definently be fast enough to outswim a shark if he needed to." Larxene reasoned.

"There's also a network of caves not far from that. It sounds like a good candidate, but it's not that far from town and plenty of the townsfold chlidren go there. Not very secret." Marluxia continued her thought.

The two swam in silence for a few minutes, the shipwreck grave coming into sight.

Marluxia tried to think back to when he had first met Demyx, closer to when he had just become a Nobody. He certainly had been curious about everything. Being underwater, lots things on land weren't used as they either weren't needed or simply couldn't work under the waves.

Larxene squeezed her way into an opening of a shipwreck's hull, "It's not exactly cozy looking in here…" She swam off, looking into all of the places a full grown merperson could fit.

Shimying into another wreck next to Larxene's, Marluxia continued his thought. By what he knew, Marluxia had become a Nobody only a year or so after Demyx, and the moment he arrived, he had been peppered with continuous questions about humans and his world whenever Demyx had been around. It had probably been how they started being friends. Despite Marluxia nudging the others away, Demyx would keep popping up despite him never getting answers to his never ending questions.

Marluxia was nearly finished searching through his shipwreck when he heard Larxene shout, "NOT IN THIS ONE, GOING TO THE NEXT." He sighed. It was doubtful that he'd be in one of these. Even if there were a few spots to curl up in, most had some piece of the ship sticking up oddly that would certainly be uncomfortable.

He swam out through one of the broken windows and scanned the surrounding ships for Larxene. "I don't think he'll be here," he said as he found her leaving another wreck.

She sighed, "I know. All the spots I'm checking look impossible to get confortable in."

They both quickly checked the area a second time before giving up on the shipwreck graveyard and finding their way to an area with a rocky seabed, plenty of smoothed rocks jutting up from the surface providing plenty of areas to sit.

Larxene lounged on a larger one and let her tail twist around a section that was higher than the rest of her rock. Marluxia found his own and laid down on it, staring at the surface of the ocean and watching the light filter through. Both silently dug through their memories to find any idea of where Demyx could have gone.

When Larxene had first been taken in by the Organization, it was a few months after Marluxia. Demyx had already started to grow on Marluxia and whereas no one could tell, they had started to become friends. She had first seen the two in the grey room her first day. Demyx had been playing his sitar and Marluxia had been sitting on the couch across from him, reading a book and listening.

It wasn't long before she had been interegated by Demyx, him hounding her with questions about her homeworld and the things they had there whether they be simple like a pair of glasses or more complicated like cars or other machinary. She was pretty mean to him at first, confused about how she had ended up there, but she, like Marluxia, had gotten fond of him.

The three of them had then started hanging out in one of the rooms in a wing of the castle that no one ever went to where they could talk without being bothered by Saix and his missions. Demyx would absentmindedly play his sitar and the two would answer the questions he'd ask as they popped into his mind, even if the conversation at hand was completely unrelated to it. He would absorb the information he was given like a sponge and occasionally expand his origional question as his interest grew.

Of course then they had started getting suspicious about the goal of the Organization. They were all lower rankings, and apparently not important enough for it to be told to them besides the general "kingdom hearts" speech Xemnas rattled on to the entire group constantly. It wasn't until Demyx had overheard a conversation between Xemnas and Xigbar did they get a better idea of what they were there for. Then they had made their plan.

Of course, them never hanging out where the other members could drop in on them, no one thought they were friends. And then with Demyx asking questions that nearly everyone (who hadn't been a merman) would know the answers to, everyone thought he was an idiot. Him prefering to play his sitar rather than fight made the others also sure that he was weak. He was in the perfect position to eavesdrop, as he had with important conversation about Sora and the keyblade.

And so Marluxia and Larxene had been sure to distance themselves from Demyx when in sight of the other members so he could easily go undected while they schemed in private of what to do.

Marluxia remembered how he had come up with the plan what must have been over a year ago now with how he didn't wake back up until recently. He had suggested manipulating Sora into a position where he would go against the senior members. Xemnas and Xigbar were the biggest threats being puppets of a man whose goal, they had gathered, was use the idea of Kingdom Hearts and becoming Somebodies again, to use the organization members as vessels. He had found a girl, Namine, who could change his memories. If need be, she could be useful in convincing him to help them take the members down.

Larxene had been the one to suggest the part of the plan they couldn't tell Demyx. If something went wrong and Sora wouldn't do what they needed him to, they'd have to make sure he'd be determined to take down the others. Demyx would be fine, being so likeable, that he could become allies with Sora, but Sora still might need to be sure about taking on Xemnas.

She suggested that they make themselves villinous to Sora. If Sora believed them to be evil, he would believe the others to be as well. He'd feel confident in the fight against what Xemnas was planning. Chances were, however, that they would end up killed by him.

Marluxia regretted not telling Demyx about their extra piece of the plan. It probably was why Sora had killed him instead of befriending him as they had seen a quick glimpse of Sora with Riku, but no Demyx in sight. Maybe if they had told him, they could have made a plan for if Demyx was killed like them. This mess they were in, trying to find each other, wouldn't be a problem.

Larxene seemed to have the same notion as she turned onto her side and began tapping the rock she was laying on, expression a mix of regret and focus. She let out a deep breath and Marluxia watched the bubbles float to the surface.

He bolted up into a sitting poisition. The surface. Demyx had been obsessed with hearing about the human worlds and what was in them. If he was that curious a year after becoming a Nobody and traveling around a few, then he must have been nearly obsessed as a child living here. If he were to have had a type of hideout here, it would be in a place where he could observe humans and hide trinkets he found.

"Larx! I think I know where to look!" he exclamined, pushing off the rock and swimming toward shore.

She propped herself up on her elbows and sputtered, "Why you- at least give me warning before you dart off like that!" Her tail uncurled and she rushed to catch up with him.

"Remember how curious he was when we first met him? He's gotta have a place near the shore," he quickly told her, still swimming as fast as could.

A grin formed on her face, "You think he'll be happy to see us?"

Marluxia grinned back, "He's got to."

They popped their heads out of the water as they reached the cliffs near the human town. Swimming alongside it they barely made out a small cove tucked away which they eagerly swam to.

Inside they saw trinkets and shells decorating the bottom of the shallow cove. Most of the objects were half buried by the sand, but a small music box was lovingly put on the only shelf in the area. Larxene picked it up and turned the knob, a tune warbling out, distorted a little by the water.

It certainly was something Demyx would treasure. Sadly, however, while they had found his favourite spot, they hadn't found him.

Marluxia frowned, "If he isn't here, where…"

The music box was placed into Larxene's pocket and she turned to Marluxia, "I guess it's time to try another world."

His eyebrows pinched together and a small grimace appeared on his face before being replaced with an expression of determination. Marluxia nodded and opened the portal to the next world.


	12. Port Royal

Marluxia had opened a portal to the first world he could think of with mermaids. There was a chance Demyx had gone somewhere more music based, but Port Royal had a vast ocean where Demyx could hide in.

"So… exactly how are we going to search for him if he's underwater?" Larxene asked, crossing her arms.

He paused, "I'm not really sure…" Marluxia just thought to find a place with mermaids, not a plan of how to find them.

Larxene looked around, "Well I guess we should start by looking for the port. Maybe we can steal a ship or something."

The two started wandering. Neither had really been assigned this world very often and when they had, the port hadn't been their destination. The buildings all looked very worn and as if at least twelve fights had happened in or around each. They were also close enough together that they obscured any view they could attempt to catch a glimpse of the water.

It took a while, but eventually they ended up in a street that wasn't crowded. At the end, the ocean was clearly seen. Larxene walked ahead of Marluxia, eager to get to the docks quickly. Marluxia was trying to think of a way they could somehow contact Demyx if he was underwater when he was slammed into the wall beside him.

They could steal a ship and dive into the water at intervals, but they'd never be able to swim far enough to actually see if Demyx was around. Then there was also the issue of if he'd even stick around if the method worked. He'd be able to swim away from them faster than they could keep up.

Larxene shouted from the helm of a ship, "Think they'll mind if we take this for a few hours?" She smirked and started to prep the ship to leave the dock, not really caring about the answer to her question.

No one saw the ship leave, or at least, no one who cared did. It was a touch difficult to get it going at first, only having two people on deck, but once it started slicing through the waves it was pretty simple.

"Got any ideas?" Marluxia shouted to Larxene as he peered over the railing.

Larxene stepped away from the wheel and joined him, hoping to catch a glimpse of a tail. "Not really… I mean, I could send lightning into the water and hope I hit him, if he's stunned he'll probably float up... "

Marluxia shook his head, "We are not electrocuting anyone."

She sighed, "I was hoping you wouldn't say that."

At one point, they saw an area with rocks jutting from the sea. Mermaids with silver tails sat on it, but once they saw the approaching ship they dove back under the water before either Marluxia or Larxene could ask about Demyx. They passed a few islands but didn't bother checking. Mermaids in this world had been confirmed so Demyx being on one of them was highly unlikely.

The ship turned back towards the town. "We aren't gonna find him this way if he even _is_ here," Larxene huffed.

The two would contiuously glance back at the water as the ship glided back to the dock, hoping their friend would pop up and greet them. Their wishful thinking was dashed as they reached the port without even a fish coming into view.

Maybe someone in the town would know of any way to search for mermaids. If they could find one person that knew how to find one, they could use their method to search for Demyx. Larxene really hoped they could at least check the ocean a bit better before moving onto another world. There was still a chance Demyx was down there.

Marluxia was ahead of her heading towards one of the more crowded pubs when a keyblade flew at him from the right and slammed him into the building beside him.

"Marluxia!" Sora exclaimed, catching his keyblade he had thrown and charging at him.

Marluxia was too dazed to summon his scythe but he heard Larxene yell as she turned and ran to intercept Sora. He saw her lift one hand to her chest, odd as normally it was both, and swing it down to her side; the move she used to summon her knives. Instead, as her single hand reached her side, a yellow and teal keyblade formed.

It was shorter than Sora's kingdom key, but then she attacked and it was apparent why. Even though she was with a larger weapon than her knives, the keyblade was small enough to be swung much faster than Sora could adequetly keep up with. Marluxia straightened back up as his head cleared and he watched in surprise as the fact sunk in that Larxene had a keyblade. And was using it against Sora. And actually was keeping him on his toes.

He tore his eyes away from the two as he saw movement from the street intersecting the one leading to the ocean. Axel was easy to recognize from his head of bright red hair, and Riku was running behind him. Marluxia was about to summon his scythe when he heard a yell.

"Does everyone have a keyblade nowadays?" Axel shouted as he summoned his own.

Marluxia didn't summon his weapon as he saw Riku slow.

"Sora, Axel, stop!" Riku exclaimed, "I'm pretty sure they aren't Xehnort!"

Axel stopped before he could reach the fight between Larxene and Sora and let his keyblade drop to his side, "What are you talking about, Riku? We already said we'd have to fight Marluxia."

Riku ran towards the fight and grabbed Sora by the collar, yanking him back. Larxene saw Riku and Axel make no moves to continue the battle, but she held her stance and didn't let her weapon vanish.

Sora continued to struggle out of Riku's grip, barely held back by his friend. "Sora- Sora stop," Riku said to his friend, dodging the wild fist that was trying to knock Riku away. "SORA." Riku grabbed the hand flailing the keyblade and it disappeared.

"Riku LET ME GO!" Sora struggled, even as his keyblade was no longer in his hand.

Marluxia walked closer to Larxene and watched as Riku had enough and slapped Sora across the back of his head, "Do they _look_ possessed by Xehenort to you?"

Dazed for a moment that Riku had slapped him, he turned, offended, to his friend, "They're _Nobodies_ , Riku, I'm pretty sure they are."

Larxene stood up straight and out of the stance she had been holding, "Oh if that's the case, I'd better let you kill me. Like you have Axel. Cause, you know, he's a Nobody too."

Sora looked back at Larxene, "He's not a Nobody!"

Marluxia arched his eyebrow, "And niether are we."

It looked as if Sora was about to make a remark back, but Riku covered his mouth before he could, "And it looks like you have a keyblade. Which could make you our _ally_ " Riku's last word was directed toward Sora, no longer trying to charge, but still looking bitter.

Larxene made a face like she had been told the sky was red, "Are you _serious?_ I'm not sticking around when that kid's gonna be trying to kill me in my sleep."

Not even needing to word his agreement, Marluxia held out his hand behind them and summoned a portal, "Nice, um.. _talking_ with you. We've got our own thing we need to do." Marluxia looked at Axel with an annoyed glare and said, "You ruined our plan by the way, glad it worked out for you though. Just don't be an idiot and ruin everything again."

The two stepped into the portal leaving an angry Sora, Riku who was still annoyed at Sora, and a very confused Axel.

Riku glanced at Axel who was staring at the spot where the portal had closed, "What did they mean by that? Axel?"

Axel blinked and turned back to Riku, "Oh, um… Not entirely sure…"

Sora huffed and marched back from where they came from, leaving Riku and Axel.

"So," Riku sighed, "Think we should go back to Neverland?"

Axel shook his head, "We still can't beat that Leviathan. It keeps going back under the water when we attack it. Unless we're able to breathe underwater with pixie dust, we aren't killing it any time soon."

"I sure hope those mermaids stay away from it then," Riku said as he went to follow Sora.

Axel turned back to where Marluxia and Larxene had been, "I hope we won't regret letting those two to go do whatever they're planning…"


	13. Twilight Town

The two walked through the portal into a square overlooked by a clock tower. It was, as always, twilight.

"Uh… Marluxia? I thought we were going somewhere with water… or music…" Larxene commented, confused.

Marluxia shrugged, "After what Sora said, I didn't really want to be wearing this cloak anymore."

Larxene looked down at her own cloak and sighed, "I hadn't really noticed. Too busy running around looking for everyone…"

"Not to mention that it seems like some other members are doing Xehnort's will and still donning them. It's hard to blame Sora and his group for assuming we were with them." Marluxia reasoned.

The two walked down the road towards the shops in silence before Larxene spoke up, "I have a keyblade."

"You do," Marluxia agreed.

Larxene kept staring ahead, looking for clothing shops, "What do we do with it?"

"That is entirely up to you," Marluxia replied. "This whole mess is from everyone trying to tell keyblade weilders what to do with their keyblades. If you think there's something it should be used for, that's your decision and that's good enough for me."

The two reached a store and walked inside. Larxene shuffled through a rack of shirts before speaking up a few minutes later, "What if it isn't though…? Isn't it the keyblade that chooses its weilder?"

Marluxia paused from sliding around jackets and looked to her, "And it trusted you to make that call. Doubting like that is what gives Xehenort a foothold."

In silence, the two continued searching for something better to wear than the cloaks marking them as villainous. Larxene had a small pile of candidates, most in the color goldenrod or teal, whereas Marluxia's choices had pink and green. The two had, without comment, started a third pile full of blues that they couldn't help but know Demyx would like.

In the end, Larxene had a medium yellow tank top with teal swirls at the hem along with black pants and teal boots, Marluxia had a pink sweatshirt with roses along one sleeve, a white shirt, and dark grey pants with black boots, and they had brought along a medium blue sweatshirt with wave patterns, a light blue tank top, black pants, and yellow shoes for Demyx. The two had also snagged one larger bag, holding the things meant for Demyx along with extra potions and elixers, and two smaller bags to hold their cloaks.

Neither were thrilled about having to keep the cloaks and lug them around, but without them it was dangerous to use portals.

Wandering around the town and asking someone every once in a while revealed no one had seen Demyx around. They hadn't had too much of an expectation as the world wasn't one that would appeal to him outside of napping and shirking work, but while there they at least had to check.

Larxene was still thinking about her new weapon. She summoned it as Marluxia went to a stall for a few extra supplies and stared at it. It had several spikes the shape of her knives, and was the same brilliant yellow and teal. Swinging it a few times, she was satisfied that its shortness was useful to be quick. Her strength wasn't great which meant having speed was vital. It vanished as Marluxia walked back.

"I've chosen the last few worlds. Which do you think next?" Marluxia asked, putting the extra potions into the large bag by Larxene's feet.

She took a deep breath and crossed her arms, thinking. "Well…" she trailed, "We could try your homeworld."

Marluxia stood and arched his eyebrow, "Why?"

Shrugging, she replied, "We havne't been there since I got you and it's the last world we know of with mermaids. If he wants comfort in that, it's the last place to check."

His face scrunched up a little, "I won't be able to do all that much if he's underwater."

Larxene rolled her eyes, "Like you could in Port Royal where there wasn't a problem with swimming."

"You know what I mean," Marluxia stated, annoyed.

She chuckled, "You just don't want Demyx to find out."

His face changed to stubborness, "No. That isn't a problem."

Larxene burst into a fit of laughter, "Whatever you say, Marly. Whatever you say~"

Marluxia sighed, "Either way, there's the Leviathan."

Catching her breath, Larxene straightened up, "Yeah… didn't exactly stick around much to figure out what to do about that. Figured the search had top priority."

The town seemed to be quieting. Despite the sun staying in the sky in the same position, the locals were leaving the streets and going back home for the night. Marluxia noticed this and took his bundled up cloak from the bag strapped to his waist.

Larxene reached into her bag and brought hers out as well, "What if he isn't in Neverland?"

Marluxia shrugged on the cloak, "We'll have to search another world."

"And if he's not there either?" she zipped up her coat.

A portal formed as Marluxia held up his hand, "We move on to the next."


	14. Return to Neverland

Demyx had left the reef. He still felt terrible, but swimming around was doing him some good. The mermaids on the island had noticed him curled up in the reef earlier and had tried to cheer him up with shells and other nik naks. It had been enough to draw him out but swimming was already draining him out again.

He approached mermaid lagoon and pulled himself onto one of the rocks. The girls there were chatting away and happily started asking him questions when they saw he was feeling well enough to leave his hiding spot in the reef.

"Why were you hiding? Did the Leviathan try to get you?" one asked.

"Or was it the pirates?" another added on.

"Nah… some guy I know said the friends I was looking for were avoiding me…" Demyx trailed.

One mermaid put her hands on her hips, "Well he sounds rude. Why would someone want to ditch you? You seem perfectly nice."

Demyx lightly chuckled, "Thanks, but I wouldn't blame them. All I ever did was play music, avoid work, and ask stupid questions everyone knew the answer to."

The first mermaid looked scandalized, "How does that make you someone to avoid? Music is beautiful, work is terrible, and asking questions means you're learning."

He shrugged, "I dunno… they left me behind once before. I mean, it probably saved my life, but it sucked when they were gone."

"If anything, that means they value your friendship," a different mermaid said decidedly.

Demyx thought about it. They certainly had wanted him to be careful and not do anything rash while they were gone as they knew the risks. He wasn't integral to the plan, so his well being wouldn't matter in the grand scheme of things, yet even without hearts they had cared enough.

His mood started to lift, "You're probably right."

The mermaid nodded her head and scooted closer on the rock to sit behind him, "When I'm sad it's nice when the others do my hair so you just sit, ok?"

Demyx nodded, happy that if anything, if the mermaids were wrong and Xigbar was right, he could at least stay there.

* * *

A portal opened, not very far from the pirate's cove, and Larxene stepped out. She shed her cloak and packed it back into the bag around her waist and picked the larger bag back up.

"Last time I didn't go near mermaid lagoon and that's where Demyx will probably be," she stated as she started hiking through the jungle towards the mermaid's hangout. A ball of light followed her, quickly flying above her and showering her with pixie dust. "Jeez, Marly, I think that's enough for ten people," she coughed, fanning away the dust that had fallen into her face.

The light tinkled unapologetically as Larxene could briefly make out the words, "It was pretty useful last time."

She scoffed, "Yeah and you didn't use nearly on much on me then." Larxene continued picking her way around the trees. "Do you wanna check back in in Pixie Hollow while we're here?"

The light ducked around the branches beside her as it tinkled a faint "No."

"Suit yourself," she shrugged.

It took a few extra minutes of walking to get to the lagoon than she thought, but as the trees cleared, she could make out a tall waterfall, probably the source of the permanent rainbow above the island. Scanning the lagoon beneath her, she could see a few mermaids hurriedly speaking to each other and glancing toward the sea.

She jumped off the cliff and landed on their rock a few feet away. "Hey. Have you seen a merman around here? Blue eyes, blonde hair that's… kind of a mullet, actually-" the bells chimed a laugh at that, "-yeah laugh it up princess, at least his isn't pink." Larxene turned back to the mermaids, "And he also really likes music."

The mermaids exchanged a worried look before one spoke up, "The Leviathan caught our friend and he went out to save her."

Larxene looked out to the ocean. Marluxia couldn't do anything, if his wings got wet he'd be useless in the air, and he couldn't swim when they were waterlogged. "Marly, stay here. I'm going to find him," she ordered, flying off before she could hear the insulted bells from Marly, insistent that he could do _something_.

She flew as close to the water as the could, trying to see below the surface to find the Leviathan and her friend. It was a scary feeling, knowing that whatever heartless was under the waves was dangerous enough to provoke Demyx into fighting. A movement in the distance to her right drew her attention. A large creature crested the water and dove back down. If she squinted, she could barely see a blonde head tangled in one of its tentacles.

Larxene pursued it as fast as she could, terrified about what the creature planned to do to Demyx. She looked ahead in the direction it was travelling. Pirate Cove. Last time she had been here Marluxia had said how he heard in the Hollow of how the pirates had captured a mermaid. This explained how they had been able to do it. The Captain could be barely made out at the railing of his ship, darkness swirling around him as the creature drew closer to the ship. Racing ahead, she could start to hear him cackling, exclaiming how the mermaid would be bait for someone named Peter.

The creature crested again and Larxene hurried away in surprise when it rose farther and farther out of the water. Before she had the chance to swoop in and attack the tentacles gripping the merperson, she saw a blonde head with a dark blue tail vault up and hit it hard enough with a keyblade to release the mermaid in its grip. Larxene watched as she splashed back into the water where her rescuer swam up to her, pointed back toward the lagoon and exchanging a few words, before they both dove back under the waves.

Larxene's attention was snapped away from the mermaids as a ball of light flashed past her.

"MARLY!" she shouted. Anxiety boiled up inside her as now Marluxia, the one who couldn't swim, was heading for the creature who was often times under the water.

The creature turned back away from the pirate ship ahead and spotted her. Larxene darted around toward the beast's blindspot and summoned her keyblade, attacking the Leviathan as much as it could before it bellowed out and lashed a tenteacle at her. She dodged and found another spot to hit. Marluxia, she noticed, was sticking near her. It calmed her nerves to see he was safe and seeming to cause a little damage with plants growing and hindering the appendages the creature was using to lash out at her. It seemed their strategy was going well, until it gained a new one to use against them. Without any notice, it dropped at full speed back into the water.

Larxene was momentarily stunned as she was forced under the water. Blinking, she frantically scanned around her for the light that was Marluxia. As she located him, however, she was snagged around the waist by something that was quickly pulling her away. She lashed out at whatever was hauling her away from Marluxia and stopped as she saw Demyx trying to pull her up to the surface.

She shook her head as quickly as she could and pointed to the sinking light. Demyx looked toward the area and finally saw it. Larxene used the pixie dust enabled flight to launch herself back to the surface and out of the water, hoping that Demyx actually saw what she had been trying to show him.

* * *

Marluxia had not been expecting the creature to fall back into the water. He was going to die again. Wings were not meant for water, and even water fairies were careful around it. Being submerged was a death sentence. Remembering, Larxene, he turned to see if she was ok, but instead saw her being taken away from the fight. That was good, at least one of them wouldn't drown.

He turned back to look at the monster above him. It had started to chase after Larxene and whomever had carried her off. Using his arms, he tried to go after it, but it was useless. Marluxia blinked. The person who had gotten Larxene out of the fight was rushing back and without a weapon this time. He expected the person to be eaten by the leviathan's gaping mouth when they suddenly dodged and swam under its belly, right toward him.

The next thing Marluxia knew was that someone was cupping him in their hands. If it was a rescue, he hoped he'd break the surface soon as he was quickly running out of oxygen.

"Larxene!" he heard a familiar voice shout. The hand above him removed, he looked up and saw Demyx waving at Larxene. She came down from her position in the sky and picked him up and away from the water.

"I'm taking him back to shore. Come on!" she gestured toward the beach.

Demyx shook his head, "It's just going to keep targeting the mermaids. I can't just leave them!"

Larxene looked toward the shore and back to the creature, "I'll be right back."

He nodded and dove back under the water to attack the heartless. She flew as quickly as she could and deposited Marluxia onto a rock, far beyond the water's reach and where the sun could help dry him.

"I'll be right back," she told the fairy as she flew back toward the ocean.

The new strategy worked very well. When the heartless would launch itself out of the water to escape Demyx's attacks, Larxene would hit it from the sky. When it retreated into the ocean, Demyx would hit it until it went back to Larxene and so on. When it was finally defeated and its heart floated away before fading, a demented yell of defeat could be heard from the pirate ship.

Larxene could see the silhouette of Demyx swimming back toward the cove, presumably to tell the mermaids the threat was gone and to check on the one who had last been attacked. She went back to the shore and picked Marluxia back up. He was mostly dry, but not enough for flying.

The two then returned to the lagoon where the mermaids were fawning over Demyx and thanking him for saving their friend. When the mermaids noticed the pair, they deflated a bit.

"You're the friends he was searching for aren't you," one glumly asked.

Demyx looked back to Larxene and grinned, "Larx! I've been searching everywhere!"

Larxene landed on an unoccupied rock, "So I've heard." She lowered her hand to the rock for Marluxia to step onto. "We've been looking everywhere too. We tried Atlantica first but I guess we just missed you."

He perked up at that, "You were in Atlantica?"

Marluxia made a few tinkling sounds, reminding Larxene of the trinket she had picked up. "We raided your hideout a bit…" she said as she pulled the music box out of her pocket. She handed it to Demyx as he pulled himself onto the rock next to her.

"I probably should have stayed longer then," he softly said.

She shook her head, "We don't blame you for leaving. You were gone longer than us and no one really seemed to remember you by what we gathered. We'd have left too."

Demyx turned his attention to the light sitting on the rock. "Is that…" he asked, barely containing his laughter.

Marluxia chimed indignantly, insisting that everyone was just jealous.

His friends barely kept themselves from laughing. "Sure, Marly," Larxene wheezed.

Marluxia chimed again, asking why Larxene wasn't teasing Demyx about his tail if she was doing so on his wings and small stature.

She paused, "That's a good point. HA Demyx is a mermaid."

Demyx rolled his eyes and nudged her, "Yeah yeah, you two already knew that."

The trio became silent, just thrilled that they had finally rejoined. After a few minutes however, Demyx realized something.

"You have a keyblade," he stated.

Larxene nodded, "You do, too."

Demyx nodded and after another minute asked, "Do you , Mar?"

The bells Marluxia made were a "No."

The mermaids had kept their distance, knowing how the friends would be wanting to catch up, but eventually they approached again.

"Thanks for getting rid of that thing," one said to the group. "Are you going to go other places and get rid of more?"

The trio looked at each other before Larxene replied, "We haven't really thought about it.."

Demyx looked toward the mermaid, "We've been so focused on finding each other there hasn't been a chance."

The mermaid cocked her head, "Well whatever you do, I'm glad you're back together." Her demeanor turned serious, "If you hurt Demyx we'll hear about it though." With that she ducked back under the water and returned to her friends.

All three were stunned a little at her sudden change of attitude before Larxene's face grew a teasing smirk, "Well aren't you popular-"

"BUP BUP BUP BUP Don't do it," Demyx interrupted. "They were very nice to me after Xigbar, thank you very much."

Larxene shrugged but her smirk didn't fade, "I've got a lot of teasing to make up for."

Demyx groaned as the Marluxia chimed with laughter.

Giving the area one last look, Larxene stood and stretched, reaching into her bag and shrugging her cloak on. "Well I say we move on to another world."

The longest sigh was let out from Demyx as he sank onto the rock and sprawled out, "Can't we staaaaay? It's nice here."

Rolling her eyes, Larxene summoned a portal, "Lazy as ever."

Demyx responded with two finger guns, "You know it."

Marluxia, finally dry, flew through the portal as a yelp was let out from Demyx who was being dragged by his arm through the portal by Larxene.

"I can go through myself!" was the last thing the mermaids heard before the portal closed, giving them a fit of giggles.


	15. Traverse Town

The trio stepped out of the portal. Or rather, Marluxia walked out with Larxene who was still dragging Demyx.

"Ok. You have legs. Get up," Larxene said as she dropped Demyx's arm.

It flopped to Demyx's side as he sluggishly sat upright, "Nope. Last time I face planted."

Marluxia held in a snicker, "I'm not really surprised."

Demyx made an "oomph" sound as Larxene tossed the largest bag she'd been carrying around at him. "That's yours," she stated, hands on her hips.

He blinked at the bag in his lap and opened it. Demyx stared at the clothes, "You got stuff for me?" His lip was quivering, Xigbar had been _completely_ wrong and he was happy enough to almost cry.

She nudged him with her foot, "Figured we could ditch the coats now that we're not in the Organization anymore."

"However we'll still need to bring them around if we're still going to portal," Marluxia stated.

Demyx finally stood with shaky legs, not sure if it was from joy or his body upset with him for going back and forth so often, and hugged the bag to his chest, "Thanks."

Larxene looked around and finally spotted a hotel, "Come on. You've gotta change and I am so wanting a bed tonight."

The three walked inside. Marluxia got two rooms, one with two beds, and another with one. He handed Larxene the key to the single bed room, "I figured you'd also want your own."

She took the key with a grin, "You'd be right. No way am I risking one of you being a snorer."

Demyx made his way into the bathroom of the room he'd share with Marluxia. Shutting the door, he took off his cloak and finally got a good look at what they had found for him. He was ecstatic about the sweatshirt. The ocean waves on it were spot on for something he'd pick himself. The rest of his clothes were exchanged for the new ones and he shoved the cloak into the bag. Sweatshirts were certainly much more comfortable than the uniform they had been wearing in the organization.

He walked out and dropped the bag and shoes by the bed near the window, claiming it for himself. Marluxia had already taken the other bed, as signified by him sprawled on it.

"Not getting much sleep?" Demyx asked.

Marluxia shook his head, eyes still closed, "It's been a little crazy. Larxene found me and then we tried to sneak back into the World That Never Was to find you but... "

"It was gone," Demyx finished for him.

He sat up on his bed, "We went to another world to try to think of where to go next but that's when we found out we'd been gone longer than we thought. There was no saying how long you had been by yourself or where you were so we went straight to Atlantica hoping you'd be there."

Demyx frowned and looked down, "I'm still sorry I left so soon."

Marluxia shook his head and flopped back onto his bed, "We weren't surprised when none of the locals knew about you."

The two fell silent. Demyx sat down in the middle of his bed and criss crossed his legs. He looked out the window and watched as the street lights turned on and the lights in other windows turn off. It took a bit of stretching as he was too determined not to leave his spot, but Demyx managed to reach the lamp between the beds and shut it off. Marluxia shifted and Demyx looked up, expecting him to say something, but he stayed quiet. Demyx pushed himself back up and realized Marluxia was asleep, unsurprising if he'd been running around as much as Demyx had.

Demyx looked out the window again and stared at the moon, it was odd that it wasn't the shape of a heart, but it was much more comforting than the one Xemnas had worshipped. He scooted back and shimmied under the blankets. After getting himself comfortable, he looked back at Marluxia, still fast asleep ontop of his own blankets. "Thanks for finding me," Demyx whispered as he closed his eyes.

* * *

He woke up with a start and looked over at the other bed. Marluxia had already woken up and left the room. Demyx swung his legs off his bed and tied on his shoes. He figured the two hadn't wanted to wake him up and were waiting in Larxene's room. Opening the door, he found no one. The bed looked as if it had never been slept in and there was no sign of Larxene even being in here.

Demyx ran down the hall. They must have left the hotel to wander around the town. He turned down the first street he came to and came to a screeching halt.

"I said they didn't want you," Xigbar said, shaking his head. "You should have taken me up on my offer.

Demyx turned and ran back and down a different street.

"Why do you deny it?" Xigbar chuckled, walking toward him.

Demyx took a few steps back before turning and running across the square. A keyblade swung at him and he barely dodged, stumbling away as he saw Sora.

"You're just a _Nobody_. You should just die!" Sora seethed, bringing the keyblade up to swing again.

He ran toward the door to the next district and found himself back in Atlantica. Everyone he remembered from before he was killed was there and smiled at him before morphing into strangers sneering.

"Who are you?" "You don't belong here." "Why did you bother to come here?" the crowd hounded him, slowly crowding him.

He swam away and back through the door, this time back in his cloak and standing in the grey room. "Larxene! Marluxia!" he exclaimed as he saw his friends. The two turned and glared at him.

"Augh. What do you want?" Larxene asked, face twisted in disgust.

"Can't you tell we don't like you?" Marluxia deadpanned, not even interested enough to add any emotion into his words.

"But…" Demyx stuttered, tears escaping his eyes. "We're…"

"Buddies?" Larxene mocked. "Why do you think we left for Castle Oblivion without you?"

"Even getting killed was better than being around you," Marluxia added.

A hole opened under Demyx's feet and he fell down into an abyss, Xigbar's laugh echoing around him.

* * *

Demyx flailed as he shot up, blankets dropping off him. He took quick shallow breaths as he looked around where he was. Looking at the other bed, he was releived to see Marluxia still asleep and still belly-flopped ontop of his blankets. Demyx rubbed his hand over his face, squeezing his eyes shut. His breaths started to slow down and become even as his panic subsided. It was just a dream.

"More like a nightmare…" Demyx muttered.

The moon was still up, casting soft light into the room. He stared at it, still hanging in the sky as a normal moon. It was still round and not looming over him. It was just there. He heard something shuffled and looked back over to Marluxia.

"Demyx…? Wha.." he muttered, propping himself up and rubbing his face.

Demyx sighed, "It's nothing, Marly. Go back to sleep."

He squinted at Demyx, sleep still blurring his vision, "Doesn't look like nothing."

Demyx looked away, "It's just a dream. Stuff Xigbar said to me."

Marluxia frowned, "Uh huh." He seemed to finally notice he wasn't under his blankets and slowly fumbled to get under them. "The look on your face says it's more than that."

Demyx flopped back onto his back, "He was just being a jerk and I need to forget about him."

There was silence for a moment. "He was your only friend after we failed our mission…. wasn't he?" Marluxia asked, guilt in his words.

He gave a small shrug and continued to stare at the ceiling, "We weren't that close. I guess he was the only one who spoke to me outside of missions."

"I'm sorry…" Marluxia whispered. "We shouldn't have left you like that."

Demyx shook his head, "What were you supposed to do? The plan worked. Sora came and destroyed the whole 'turn everyone into vessels' thing."

Marluxia looked at his pillow feeling guilty, "It was because of us you were alone for that long… and why Sora rejected you…" Demyx looked back at Marluxia, confused, as he contiued staring at his pillow. "Sora was proving difficult, so we decided to act as villinous and dislikable as possible toward him. We thought we could at least give him incentive to fight the Organization but… I guess we did too good of a job."

Demyx stared at Marluxia who started fidling with his hands, still not looking back to Demyx. "I'm not mad about that if that's what you're worried about," Demyx said. "Xigbar… he said you two weren't looking for me." Marluxia looked back at Demyx. He looked down and sighed, "He said I was lazy and that no one had liked me. That you and Larx were avoiding me."

Marluxia sat up, "You know we'd never do that."

Demyx shrugged, "It got to me, though. He made me think _maybe_. Maybe they really don't want me."

"We saw him right after you left the Enchanted Domain. We hadn't gotten there fast enoughto catch up with you, but Larxene was ready to maul him when he laughed about you," Marluxia said.

He chuckled, "That sounds like her."

"We should get back to sleep," Marluxia yawned.

"I kinda don't want to…" Demyx mumbled. "Xigbar will show up again."

Marluixa lifted up his covers, "Get over here." Demyx looked over confused. He rolled his eyes, "Before I got killed, some of the other garden fairies would get nightmares about the heartless since they were so big and fast. Sleeping next to someone would help them not get those dreams and if they did, they'd wake up and calm down much faster having someone right there." He gave the space next to him a pat as Demyx hesitently left his own bed and crawled onto Marluxia's.

"Thanks," he whispered, already falling asleep.

"I'm your friend. It's what I'm supposed to do," Marluxia responded as his eyes closed.

* * *

Demyx saw Xigbar standing in front of him. He opened his mouth to say something but before he could, Larxene charged in from Demyx's left and attacked with her keyblade. Xigbar stumbled a bit but fought back, starting to gain ground and push his way toward Demyx. Marluxia stepped up next to Demyx and looked at him before joining the fight against Xigbar, pushing him back with a panicked look as the two beat him farther and farther back with their keyblades.

* * *

He woke up, dream quickly fading. Marluxia was still asleep, facing him and with an arm draped over Demyx. He slowly sat up and scooted out of the bed. Marluxia kept sleeping as Demyx quietly left the room.

Demyx knocked on Larxene's door and heard grumpy mumbling in reply. The door opened to show a half asleep Larxene.

"Do they have coffee here?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"I can check," Demyx replied.

She nodded, still half asleep, "Coffee is good. Put sugar in it." Larxene then turned and walked back to her bed. Demyx left and she flopped onto it.

He laughed a bit at how the other members would have been flabbergasted at how out of the three of them, it was Demyx who was the early riser and Larxene and Marluxia the two who woke up late and grumpy. There was coffee in the enterence room and he filled three mugs, one with sugar for Larxene, one black for Marluxia, and one with cream and sugar for himself.

Returning, he found Larxene's room empty. He nudged his room's half closed door open to find Larxene had managed to stumble inside and flop halfway onto the closest bed. That bed happened to be Marluxia's who had woken up at her falling ontop of him and was, also partially asleep, trying to push her off while she mumbled incoherently about coffee.

Demyx put the three mugs down on the small table and laughed. He took a few steps back from the bed and charged, jumping and landing sprawled on both of them. The two finally woke up and kicked him off of them, still giggling like mad as he hit the floor. Larxene went to the coffe and picked one up. She took an experimental sip and scrunched her face up.

"This one's yours, Marly," she said as she handed it to him and picked up the correct mug.

He kicked off the blankets and took it. "How is it Dem is the one who naps everywhere yet wakes up early?" he asked as he drank half the coffee in one go.

"That is a question no one will ever be able to answer," Larxene replied as she stared at Demyx.

"It's called: I sleep everywhere during the day so I need less sleep at night," Demyx answered as he took his own coffee. Larxene rolled her eyes.

Marluxia finished his cup and finally got out of his bed, "Does anyone have any idea of what we should do next?"

Demyx gave an offended look to Marluxia, "You don't just chug coffee! You have to _savour_ it."

"You're the only one who gets decaf and for the flavour, Demy," Larxene chuckled.

Marluxia nodded with a serious expression, "It's energy. You must chug it so you wake up sooner."

"You're just gonna crash and burn," Demyx laughed.

Larxene grinned, "When we do we'll copy you and nap instead of doing what we're supposed to."

Demyx stopped laughing and paused, "That's fair."

She put down her now empty mug, "We should figure out what to do next, especially with Sora and gang running around the place."

"Sora?" Demyx asked.

"He attacked us in Port Royal," Marluxia confirmed.

Demyx shrank back, "Yeah… let's avoid him."

Larxene sighed, "I'd love to smack that supriority complex out of that kid."

"He only attacked us thinking we were still Xehenort's goons," Marluxia scolded.

She shrugged, "Still deserves it. Especially seeing as Axel's part of his crew without a problem."

Demyx's eyebrows pinched together, "Axel joined Sora? I saw a silver haired kid but..."

Marluxia rubbed his face, "That was Riku, the friend Sora has been searching for. Axel probably joined because he was close friends with Roxas. He may be clinging to that hoping Sora has the same personality so he can have his friend back."

"That's… sad," Demyx said frowning.

"What can you do?" Larxene stated. "He made his choices, no matter how dumb they are."

"We do need to figure out what we're going to do," Marluxia said. "We can continue fighting against Xehenort or continue world hopping and let Sora handle it."

Larxene spoke up first, "We should use them against him. It did pick us after we already decided to without keyblades."

Demyx was quiet for a moment before saying, "What about Sora, though?"

"He's stubborn and won't like us, but he shouldn't attack. His friend seems to be the reasonable one who can calm him down," Marluxia reasoned.

He thought about it before nodding and saying, "Ok. We fight Xehenort."

Larxene crossed her arms, "We probably should world hop for a bit to train though. I can use moves from my knives but it's still odd."

Demyx shuffled his feet, "I tried fighting with it once before but it's close range. I'm used to distance with Arpeggio."

"Then it's decided. What world first?" Marluxia asked.

"Anywhere but Olympus…" Demyx gulped. "That satyr is a demon with training."

The three gathered their things, put their cloaks on over their much more favoured clothes, and summoned a portal.


	16. Wonderland Again

Wonderland wasn't the most desireable world to be in for an undetermined amount of time seeing how easy it was to get lost, but it would certainly work in the trio's favour if Sora popped up. Demyx was certainly not looking forward to seeing the kid again after hearing how he had blindly attacked Marluxia.

"So how are we doing this? Wandering until we find heartless? Or should we whack at the air?" Demyx wondered out loud.

Larxene scrunched up her face thinking, "I guess we should make sure you're actually holding the thing right so you can get a good swing in."

Demyx stuck out his tongue at her as he raised his arm above his head, keyblade forming. "Pretty sure the handle is pretty self explanatory," he said.

She rolled her eyes as she examined Demyx's fighting stance, "Well at least you're well grounded."

His stance echoed how he held the sitar, feet apart and knees bent, one hand holding the handle of the sitar, and the other held farther out from his body semi awkwardly without having a definite place for it anymore. Larxene considered how he had never fought with anything but magic and was satisfied enough. Larxene summoned her own and looked around for something to hit. Luck struck them as a single shadow heartless rose from the ground not too far away.

"Ok," she said, "all you're going to do-" she rushed up to the shadow and confidently swung her keyblade into it, "-is aim for the body and swing."

Demyx let his stance drop and stared, "Ok. That's…. I had figured that part out myself."

Marluxia spoke up, "I would suggest just fighting a few and seeing what happens. I mean, your fighting styles and keyblades are pretty different."

"Yeah… I'm not sprinting at every heartless I see. It's a bit smaller, but Arpeggio Jr. is still not exactly light weight," Demyx stated.

Larxene harrumphed as another shadow appeared, "Fine then. Go hit that one."

He turned to it and jogged in it's direction. When only a few feet away, he dropped back into his low stance and swung as it lunged at him. Demyx stared at the heart that rose from where the shadow used to be. "Hey!" he smiled, "I got one!"

"Haven't you fought them before?" Marluxia asked, confused.

Demyx let his keyblade vanish and turned back toward him, "Well yeah but that was as a merperson most of the time and it was just panicked swinging. I never really figured out the whole moving around to the targets thing."

Several more shadows and a few operas suddenly appeared, scattered in all directions.

"Well here's your chance!" Larxene yelled back as she began charging the creatures.

Keyblade back in hand, Demyx ran into the fight as well. Thankfully, there weren't very many. They were all spread out which certainly allowed Demyx a better chance to figure out maneuvers without being overwhelmed. Sadly, because they were so spread out, the trio had been lured in seperate directions.

When Demyx vanquished the last yellow opera, he turned back ready to tackle whichever his friends was closer into a victory hug, but he found himself alone.

"... of all the places to be separated." Demyx let out a big breath of exasperation and rolled his shoulders. "I'm going to go chill with Luxord. No wild goose chase for me."

He let his keyblade disappear and shoved his hands into his hoodie pockets to start walking down the path towards the Hatter's house.. Panic bubbled in his chest but he willed it to disperse enough to think clearly. Marly and Larx _knew_ he was there. They _knew_ he was on the same world and wouldn't leave him there. Demyx stopped and closed his eyes, taking deep breaths. He _wouldn't_ be abandoned.

After a few minutes chasing away the thoughts of being left behind, he started walking again, faster this time. He knew it'd be a long walk since Wonderland didn't like taking you where you wanted to go right away, but he didn't really care that much. The world didn't seem to care where it took him either as the path started to become cloaked with smoke.

Coughing a bit and waving the thick smoke away from his face, Demyx turned and saw a caterpillar on a mushroom.

"Whooooo are yoooou?" it asked, blowing smoke directly at Demyx.

He coughed again, "Wh-what?"

The caterpillar seemed displeased as it repeated, " _Whooo_ are _yoooou_?"

Demyx blinked before answering, "Demyx…"

"That doesn't seem right," it answered, leering at him.

He dug his hands deeper into his pockets, "Well that's my name so…"

Leaning farther toward Demyx, the blue bug stared at him, "Are you sure?"

"Ok so it's not my _original_ name but it's still my name," he squirmed. Demyx was getting the heeby jeebies. Bugs shouldn't be able to stare into your soul and the smoke seriously stunk.

The caterpillar seemed satisfied but still disdainful, sitting back up and taking a deep breath from his pipe, "Names are names. Perhaps it was your first name that wasn't your real name. You must decide which it is. Confusion about your name shouldn't come from yourself. If you aren't sure, how should other people be?"

Demyx stared, eyes wide in a mixture of being creeped out and because this creepy crawler was actually pretty smart, "Um… ok."

Smoking from his pipe again, the caterpillar gave a sagely nod and let out the breath. The smoke thickened until it was gone and Demyx was alone again on the path.

He shook his head, "Man. This world really likes to mess with your head."

He couldn't shake off what the overgrown bug had said, though. Demyx was so distracted repeating what he had told him over and over that he didn't notice that he had come to stand in front of the gate to the Hatter's house. The shrill noise of bubbling teapots and the clatter of teacups were joined by chatter and occasional offended shout.

Demyx pushed open the gate and trudged his way into the garden, half focused on the caterpillar and half on rejoining his friends. Happily, the world finally seemed to have taken a liking to him as Marluxia and Larxene were nearly buried in biscuits and teacups, trying to tell the March Hare that no, they were fine with only seventeen and three quarters of a biscuit. He held back a laugh at the sight of Marluxia having a half teacup balanced on his head, arms full of more cups and biscuits, while Larxene was trying to keep one precariously on her shoulder from falling along with the several cups in her hands.

"Hey!" Demyx cheered as he jogged over to the chair next to Marluxia and plopped into it, taking one of the cups and biscuits from his hands but leaving the one perched on his head.

"Demyx if you're taking some at _least_ take that one!" he exclaimed as it wobbled on his head dangerously.

Demyx struggled to keep from choking on his biscuit as he couldn't help but laugh.

"Come _on!_ " Larxene yelled, "That Rabbit keeps giving us more tea and Luxord won't do _anything_ about it!"

Luxord chuckled as Demyx finally noticed he was also sitting at the table, still playing his solitaire, "You seem to have finally figured out how to get around here. And don't mind the Hare, he likes the company."

"At least the Hatter seems to have left for the moment," Demyx giggled, imagining the chaos if he was also there screaming about jam.

His two friends' faces morphed into panic. "THERE'S ANOTHER?" Larxene shouted. "NOPE, I'M DONE."

The cup on her shoulder finally fell to the ground. Marluxia was startled enough from her outburst the one on his head also lost balance and fell along with a few of his biscuits.

The March Hare saw this and screamed, "YOU LIKE THE TEA! YOU SHOULD HAVE MORE!"

Larxene and Marluxia all but bolted from their seats, teacups clattering onto the table and grass as they yelled their goodbyes to Luxord over their shoulder.

Demyx grabbed another biscuit and stuffed it in his mouth as he waved goodbye. Luxord waved back as Demyx sprinted to catch up to his friends. Marluxia surprisingly had taken the lead and had stopped, cloak half on, making a portal and standing beside it to flail his arm while shouting, "GO GO GO!" Larxene practically dived into it with her jacket just staying on by the hood on her head, and Demyx almost had to stop he was laughing so hard. He only made it through the portal with his cloak tied around his waist because Marluxia grabbed him and threw him into it, jumping in after him.

"We _have_ to back to Wonderland later!" Demyx laughed.

Larxene and Marluxia shouted a unanimous, "NO."


	17. The Land of Dragons

Exiting the portal, the trio found themselves in a nice village. Demyx stretched and looked around, "This looks like a nice place to relax for a while."

Larxene rolled her eyes, "We can't just nap every time we go to a new world."

Demyx stuck his tongue out at her, "We also can't swing our keyblades at the air all day."

Sighing Marluxia placed a hand on each of their shoulders, guiding them toward a shaded area at the edge of the village, "I'm glad to see the friendly bickering is still there, but Demyx does have a point."

"HA!" Demyx smiled triumphantly and put his hands to his ears, wiggling his fingers, while sticking his tongue out at Larxene again.

"We'll take a _short_ break and then go back to practicing. You need it most, Demyx," Marluxia finished.

Larxene let out her own snicker at Demyx as he pouted and plopped himself down under a tree. She sat down a few feet away and sprawled out on her back.

"What was that about not relaxing?" Demyx teased as he leaned back on the tree trunk to sleep.

Without moving from her spot, she kicked him in the shin, "Ehhhh you can't judge me. I will starfish if I want to."

Dramatically, Demyx flopped over onto his side, "Marly! Save me! I'm being attacked!"

Marluxia chuckled and sat himself down across from the other two, "You think I want to join you getting kicked?"

Defeated, Demyx remained sprawled on his stomach, "Yes."

Laughing, Marluxia sat and enjoyed the silence that followed. After a few minutes, he realized Larxene had fallen asleep.

Demyx broke the silence muttering, "Hypocrite…" in her general direction, to lazy himself to move to properly tease her.

Marluxia resigned himself to fate and leaned back til he was also lying on the ground. He put his hands behind his head and crossed his legs, staring at the leaves rustling above them.

After becoming a nobody, he had all too easily given up on getting his heart back and convinced himself it was better this way; no heart, no emotions, no mourning for his lost life, and no losing his new life and new friends. He still hadn't said much about his former life to Larxene and Demyx. He hadn't been too truthful and having a heart made it painful to remember. When he had first woken up a somebody he was glad his first thoughts were worry for Larxene and Demyx, but after seeing the two wield keyblades…

He looked back at the two to see Demyx had joined Larxene in sleeping. Marluxia figured they both needed it. Sitting back up, Marluxia stared at his hand. Another thing he didn't miss about having a heart: fear of rejection. Letting out a heavy sigh, he stood back up. His friends would be asleep for at least another hour or two, three minimum for Demyx. Marluxia rolled his shoulders and neck and looked toward the village. A walk would be nice to get these thoughts out of his head.

The village was a nice place. There was colour everywhere and as the sun lowered in the sky, it seemed people were getting ready for a celebration. He recognized a few boxes of fireworks set behind a building and figured Larxene would be thrilled. He whipped his head around as a shrill scream interrupted the cheerful atmosphere with fear. Pushing people aside, he ran to see what had happened and stopped. Not just one heartless, but a small swarm was racing down the mountainside toward the town.

Marluxia took a few steps back and ran back to the tree he had left his friends sleeping under. It took longer than he wanted, wedging his way between panicked villagers and those confused about the screaming. He was relieved to find both Demyx and Larxene sitting up and looking around, clearly having been just woken up by the commotion.

Larxene noticed Marluxia first, "What's going on?" she questioned as she stood up.

Marluxia offered a hand to Demyx and hauled him up as he explained, "There's a horde of heartless. I don't know how they got into this world, but they're coming down the mountainside toward the village. I don't know if you two can take them all, especially since Demyx isn't good close range yet."

Demyx rubbed a hand over his face, "Well we can't just _leave_. There's gotta be something we can do."

"We can try to fight them off but…" Marluxia's face clearly showed worry. He and Larxene might be able to hold their ground for a bit but Demyx still being untrained…

Larxene gave Demyx's shoulder a light punch, "He'll be fine. He's stronger than he looks."

Demyx jumped from foot to foot and started off in the direction of the heartless, "Come on!"

Larxene quickly took off after him, summoning her keyblade as she ran. Marluxia hesitated for a moment and followed after.

Demyx quickly learned Marluxia hadn't been exaggerating. There truly was a horde. How they managed to all get into the world was beyond him, but he refused to leave these people to fend for themselves. Taking a deep breath, he summoned his keyblade and hoped he was a quick learner.

Marluxia arrived to the frontlines a few seconds after the other two and he immediately began swinging his scythe into any heartless that came near him. He knew every heartless he hit would eventually come back though. Only a keyblade would keep them down for good. He heard a yell and looked over to see that both Larxene and Demyx were struggling. Demyx was doing better, learning as he fought, but neither were prepared to fight so many heartless with unfamiliar weapons. Still afraid of the rejection but terrified for his friends even more, Marluxia let his scythe disappear and reached for the familiar feeling from years ago.

As another wave of heartless reached the trio, Marluxia swung his weapon he thought he never would again. Its shape had changed, it heavily resembled the scythe he had wielded only moments before, but it still felt the same in his hand.

The fight continued for several more minutes. As the heartless began to thin in numbers, the trio saw there was still a final wave coming in their direction.

"We're gonna be swamped!" Demyx yelled, slamming his keyblade into another heartless.

"We can't leave yet. It's the last of them but there's still enough to destroy the village," Larxene yelled back.

Looking back at the approaching swarm, Demyx started charging toward them, "We can at least keep them from getting near it!"

Startled, Marluxia killed off the final lingering heartless in the area and ran after him, "What are you doing?"

Calling over his shoulder, Demyx explained, "I'm best long range, remember? I gotta try something!"

Marluxia looked back at Larxene who shook her head in confusion, "I've got no clue!"

A faster runner than the other two, Demyx quickly covered more ground and left them farther and farther behind. When Marluxia and Larxene thought he would completely vanish from sight, he stopped. The horde wasn't too far off now and Demyx was going to be the first thing in their path that would be trampled.

Larxene and Marluxia pushed themselves even harder and as they got closer to Demyx they saw him holding the keyblade oddly, his left hand was holding the middle section where the useless strings were, and the other hand hovering over the handle where the base of his sitar would have been.

Breathlessly Marluxia asked, "What are you-"

He couldn't finish his question as Demyx raised his hand and the strings on the stem raced to the bottom of the keyblade, and he strummed them once, a burst of water stunning the first row of approaching heartless.

"HA! It WORKED!" he crowed.

Larxene huffed, "What were you going to do if it _didn't?_ "

Demyx shrugged, "Yell at me later!"

With that, he played another note and released more water magic to thin out the horde as it finally reached the trio. All three were tired from the previous waves of them, but with the pillars of water beating down advancing heartless, the numbers were easier to deal with. It still took longer than they would have liked, but eventually the swarm became a few stragglers which were quickly dealt with.

Exhausted, the trio collapsed into the snow and began to catch their breath.

"Hey Marly?" Demyx asked.

Marluxia gave an exhausted "Hhhrm?" as a reply.

"Was that… a keyblade?" he questioned tiredly.

Marluxia waved a hand in the air, "Sleep first questions later."

Demyx nodded in complete agreement.

Larxene wasn't satisfied as completely drained of energy, she hauled herself up and tugged on her black coat, "Ok no. If we're sleeping, it is _not_ going to be on some random mountain." She summoned a portal and watched a Marluxia and Demyx sluggishly stood up, put on their coats, and trudged through it.

Traverse town was thankfully heartless free as the trio shuffled through the inn door and got a room. They had managed to wrestle off the black coats but didn't bother to take off their shoes as Demyx landed face first on the closest bed, legs dangling off the side of the bed. Marluxia, half asleep, shuffled into the room and managed to land completely on the same bed before curling up and falling completely asleep. Larxene, grumpy about the nearest bed being entirely occupied and having to walk an extra five feet to the second bed, angrily flopped onto it and took up the entire mattress before falling asleep.


	18. A Dream

A stained glass window.

He was in the middle, eyes closed, hand over his heart. There were five circles around his head, each a different profile.

To his left, he recognized Kairi, her eyes open. Beneath her, another girl with a similar hairstyle but black. He couldn't place a name to her, but her eyes were closed and there seemed to be a faint glow underneath her place.

On his right, there was a spiky blonde haired boy with an 'x' pendant around his neck: Roxas. His spot had a faint glow underneath it like the dark haired girl, his eyes also closed.

Above Roxas, another boy with an identical appearance. However, he wore some type of armor over one shoulder and this boy's eyes were open. He struggled to place the name, it felt like he knew him. As he stared at the mysterious boy, he saw the glow under his circle along with Roxas's circle brighten until he saw the light merge and pass through the unknown boy's glass to hover in front of him. He stared as it dimmed enough to make out that the light was emanating from a heart. It floated in front of him for a moment, seeming to tell him 'Thank you for letting me stay for so long, but now I need to get back,' before it continued to rise farther and farther up until he could no longer see it.

He looked back down at the faces around his own. Now only two glowed. The dark haired girl that looked like Kairi, and the last boy. He looked like himself, but his hair was black. This boy he also didn't know the name for, but as he continued to look at it, the light underneath him seemed to glow brighter and take on a purple hue.

* * *

As the rest of the group slept, Lea stared up at the moon. It was familiar but at the same time he had grown accustomed to the heart shape of kingdom hearts. It was both comforting and off putting, and he supposed the two different moons now had that in common.

While looking up at the stars and the moon, he didn't notice as a light rose from Sora's chest and up into the sky, where Lea believed he saw a shooting star.

"I wish…" Lea whispered, "I wish that I could have Roxas back…"


	19. Decisions

A/N: I've been holding out to see the direction the next game was going in. Which meant freaking out over the nortings. It gave me some more good ideas to play around with, buuuuuttt I am now gonna just break completely off from trying to stay somewhat compliant with the actual story.

"So you have a keyblade?" Demyx asked dumbfounded.

They had woken up after the avalanche of heartless and it was sinking in that not only did one member have the weapon the Organization had been searching for, but all three of them had it. The real kicker was that not only did each possess one, but that Marluxia had had one for years. In fact, he had had one before he was even a Nobody.

Marluxia shifted, "Yes. When I… I had seen the war and I didn't want there to be another one. If the Organization knew, it would have been used to bring another war on faster."

Demyx slumped his shoulders before eventually flopping backwards onto the bed from where he had already been sitting. "Why do we have them then? Why didn't we have them earlier?"

Larxene crossed her legs and leaned back, "No clue, don't care. Isn't it sentient or something? Maybe it just changed its mind or something."

Sighing, Marluxia held out his hand and summoned his keyblade. It was different than from years before, much more influenced by his scythe. "What matters is that we use them to stop the war before it can start."

"What can we even do about that?" Demyx huffed while sitting back up. "We tried how long ago and all it did was get us all killed." He slumped down and put his hand on his face. "Pretty sure if we tried to help we'd still be seen as the bad guys…"

There was a silent moment as Marluxia and Larxene looked at each other. With the time gap between their death and his, he had been alone for at least a year.

"I don't really know.." Marluxia said softly. "When the first war was becoming apparent I wasn't able to stop it…"

Larxene crossed her arms, determined. "I say we choose a side then," she declared. "We tried to stop it before, you tried to stop it however long ago, it's gonna happen. We might as well choose how it does instead of not being a part of it."

Marluxia's gaze wandered to Demyx, "I suppose that would mean we track down Sora."

Larxene and Marluxia both saw as Demyx tensed at the name.


	20. Plans

Yellow eyes opened. The vessel they had been attempting to cultivate kept slipping through their fingers. If things were to proceed as planned, they were roughly at only half the numbers needed. That had been made very clear at his last failure.

Xigbar had been keeping tabs on his friend with the sitar ever since he finally caught up with him in Agrabah. The kid was pretty quick with his world hopping which was pretty odd for the laid back personality that had been displayed in the Organization. Then the pink haired flower boy and sparky girl came into the picture. Saix had told him the chances of the two reappearing was strong with everyone else popping up. The chances of them tracking each other down so soon was supposed to be unlikely, however. Unfortunately for him, they were very effective at locating Demyx, right when Xigbar was that close to snatching him up.

Demyx obviously wasn't the ideal vessel, but with how guarded Sora was after several attempts, it seemed like a decent shot since either way there'd be a keyblade involved. Of course, they had been pretty distracted recently. He would certainly be keeping his eye on the little musician. The way he got tense at just the mention of Sora was pretty telling of his feelings on the spikey brat. Not to mention that fear might help in the long run if he managed to grab the kid and haul him back for an Organization reunion.

Xigbar lingered another moment before summoning a portal. It looked like the trio would be looking for Sora and Friends for a bit and unlike them, Xigbar knew their location. He just needed to watch both groups and wait for the ideal opportunity on either side. Interesting things were bound to happen when keyblades were involved.


	21. Luxord: Wonderland

Luxord had been feeling odd for a couple of days now. Odd was usually good, being he lived in Wonderland after all. This odd, however, was almost ominous. It felt like he should be able to put his finger on the sensation, but he couldn't quite figure it out. Perhaps it was some sixth sense warning him. Perhaps it was just the unusually tall stack of teacups the Hatter and Hare had created. They were farily close to breaking their record, after all.

"More JAM!" the Hatter screamed as he raced around, teacups and biscuits in hand.

"That doesn't look up to code," replied a familiar voice.

Luxord looked up from his solitaire and was surprised to see the familiar red spikes of Axel. "Unfortunately for Wonderland, it is," chuckled Luxord.

Axel shook his head, "How is it this is your homeworld yet you seem so out of place?"

The last set complete, Luxord began shuffling. "Am I really? Seeing as I am out of the ordinary here…" he trailed off.

Behind Axel there were more familiar faces, some that put him on edge.

"Lea, are you gonna tell us who we're looking for?" Sora asked as he closed the gate behind him. "It seems like we've been walking in circles again."

Axel- or Lea, he supposed, seemed to notice Luxord's change of grip on the deck of cards, ready for battle at the first sign of danger. "It's fine," assured Lea. "He knows you aren't part of the Organization anymore."

Sora's head popped out from behind Lea, "I wouldn't have guessed Wonderland as your home world."

"THERE's the jam!," shrieked the Hare as he eagerly pulled Sora into a chair.

The two's unstable stack of cups held the boy's interest enough that Luxord could relax from the unexpected visit. "I'm not sure why either of you are here," he stated.

"Well… I guess you could say that it's because I think Xigbar's poking his scarred up face into places it shouldn't be. I've caught him once or twice slinking around in the shadows and even though he might not know I know, it's still something to keep ahead of."

Luxord raised an eyebrow. "And what does this have to do with me?" he questioned, "Not that I don't appreciate the gesture but I hardly interacted with him outside of poker night."

Lea chuckled halfheartedly, "You never know when the Organization might start recruiting again. They've been after some new vessels and I don't know if they have any hold on us still. Just thought a warning could be useful."

After a pause, cards were cut and laid out into a new solitaire game, "Why bring him to warn me?"

Lea shrugged, "Training buddy. This is the world we were told to go to and I figured while I was here to make the trip. Not as suspicious as me sneaking off alone."

Sora managed to tear himself away from the delightful game of adding biscuits to the teacup tower and made his way back to Lea, pausing as he realized Luxord was at the head of the table.

"Relax, spike, he won't bite," Lea teased.

Sora's expression became determined as he stopped in front of Luxord, hand held out.

Luxord looked at it with surprise and confusion.

"I...I'm sorry about how things ended up last time. I swear I didn't mean… You guys just wanted your hearts back..."

There was a long pause as Luxord continued to stare at the boy, considering his words. An apology wasn't something he thought he'd hear from him seeing as he had targeted his friends. Hesitantly, he took Sora's offered hand and shook it.


	22. Castle Oblivion

.

Sora hadn't been sure about the ex-organization members. Axel seemed familiar and he couldn't help feeling safe around him, not to mention he had sacrificed himself to get Sora to the base of the group, but the others…. something inside of him had been distrustful. Recently however, that suspicious feeling wasn't there anymore. He knew that his Nobody, Roxas, hadn't been fond of the group at the end but that couldn't be affecting him. In fact he had met Luxord in his home world and he seemed friendly enough. Certainly unsure, but still friendly. Sora couldn't blame him as Luxord had been killed by him in the past.

He was feeling heavier though. As if a light had left and forgot to take the shadow with. That feeling seemed to peak when he shook Luxord's hand but it went away quickly enough. It was probably nothing.

Currently, he and Axel were finishing up training before regrouping with Riku and Kairi. Kairi had been improving very quickly and was just about at the same level as Sora now. Axel still had stumbles, but he also wasn't far behind.

"You ready to head back?" Sora asked Axel.

"You know it," he replied, letting his keyblade vanish.

The two climbed into the gummi ship and set the course to Merlin's tower, their current base as they were all trained by Merlin and Mickey.

"Have you heard anything from the other Organization members?" Sora asked.

Axel was surprised by the question. "Obviously Ienzo and Even and the guys from Radiant Garden, but not Marluxia or Larxene if that's what you're asking."

"What do you think they're up to? It can't be good so shouldn't we be looking for them?" Sora wondered.

"I mean," Axel responded, "I don't know what they're trying to do. It sounds like their first plan was ruined but now that they're somebodies, and with Larxene having a keyblade, I wouldn't have any idea."

Sora's brow furrowed, "I don't get why we're training so much when they could be up to something."

Axel shrugged, "Nothing we can do about it right now. Merlin and the king are already trying to figure out what to do about Xehanort. Adding those two might over complicate things since we don't know if they're still working with him."

"They were also trying to get the keyblade and now they have one," Sora stated.

"That's why it's tricky. Larxene's keyblade wasn't looking like what Riku's used to. It looked more like mine. We can't say who they're working for or if they're on their own." Axel leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head, "Besides, we've got enough to worry about with Aqua, Ventus, and Terra."

Sora deflated a little, "How are we even supposed to help them when we don't know where they are?"

Axel raised an eyebrow, "Didn't they tell you that that random key you found was their former masters?"

Sora tilted his head confused, "Yea. They said apparently Terra killed him but he somehow managed to send the keyblade away before he could get it."

There was a pause as Axel sat up. Little bits and pieces were connecting in his head. By what he had been learning about keyblades, they could lock and unlock worlds. If the master's keyblade that Sora had found was a specific key that had gone missing, it had to have had something special it was connected to. Back when he was a nobody, Xemnas had insisted on turning Castle Oblivion into a second base for the Organization. When he had been there he had found a section he couldn't get into that had a symbol that looked like the organization's but upside down which he had learned was the symbol of the Masters or something similar. The group had never been inside Castle Oblivion long enough to find the locked off portion not to mention hadn't had the special keyblade. What if…

It had taken some explaining and some confusion, but he had managed to catch Riku and Kairi and convinced them to join him and Sora on a little trip to Castle Oblivion. Riku and Sora were understandably cautious about the world seeing as bad things had happened when it was under Organization XIII's control, but when Axel had recounted things he had dismissed years before, their interest was peaked. Kairi, to Axel's surprise, was very gung ho about marching straight into the world before getting advice from Merlin or Mickey.

"They'll take forever to decide and if they even say yes, we won't be allowed to come. I want to see what that door's about and what's behind it," she stated, already walking up into the gummi ship.

Riku was taken aback, but seeing as he had passed the test and was a master, they technically didn't need to go to Merlin or Mickey if he went along. Hence, Sora's arm was quickly looped through his as he was pulled to the ship.

"I haven't even said yes yet," Riku stated as the door was closed and the ship started up.

"You would have anyway," Sora grinned. "You're just as curious as we are."

"And since you're a master you just need to come with us for supervision," Kairi sang. "You've been in charge of training me so this can just be a training mission!"

Axel chuckled, "I don't think it will be dangerous. The castle is empty and there probably won't be anything behind the door anyway. It's just a hunch."

The door that had kept out the Organization was huge. And white. Very white. Sora felt uneasy in this world since he had lost a year to this place when he had fought Marluxia and Larxene, but Axel was right about it being empty.

"Go on. You've used the keyblade to lock and unlock worlds before!" Kairi nudged Sora.

Sora looked at the door another second as he summoned the master's keyblade. As he pointed it up at the door, he wasn't expecting much. To everyone's surprise, however, a light shot out to a keyhole.

There was a bright light, and then it faded. Nothing seemed any different.

"Let's see if anything happened," Axel said as he walked up to the door. He paused, and then pushed on the door.

Inside, it was just as white. The symbol from the door was everywhere. What stopped Axel in his tracks, though, was the single char in the middle of the room. There was a boy sitting in it, looking as if he was asleep.


	23. Waking

Demyx was tired of world hopping. He understood there was a war that was going to happen, but he missed having somewhere he could call home. Sure the Organization sucked most of the time, but at least he had had his own room he could go to after every mission. Larxene seemed just as tired of the situation as he was.

"Can we _please_ have somewhere else to sleep tonight? I am not camping out in a jungle again."

Marluxia chuckled, "It's not our fault you're the only human in Neverland."

Larxene flailed her arms in indignant offense, "There are WAY too many worlds with jungles. There's that one world that is nothing _but_ jungle!"

Demyx sighed, "Yeah, Mar. I'm tired of it too. I never thought I'd miss my room at the castle. I wish it wasn't gone."

Marluxia was quiet for a moment, "There is still a base we could use."

Larxene perked up, "Wait, are you saying we could have gone there at any point this whole time?"

"What are you guys talking about?" Demyx tilted his head confused.

"I don't think you ever went to Castle Oblivion. It was actually pretty nice…" Marluxia trailed off.

Demyx frowned. He wasn't fond of going to the place that they died. He didn't want to go back to where his final confrontation with Sora was, so he didn't want Marluxia or Larxene to have to either.

"I'm sold," stated Larxene. "I bet my room wasn't touched since then."

Marluxia's nose wrinkled, "Your sheets will be so gross."

Demyx could have sworn he saw Larxene's antenna sink at the notion of doing laundry. "So…. are we going?" he asked.

"It seems like it," Marluxia said as he held up a hand.

The three shrugged on their coats and walked through the portal to Castle Oblivion.

* * *

Axel was dumbfounded. Roxas was in the chair asleep like when they had been in the Organization. Had he been here the whole time? Would he wake up like he had before or was this something different?

The trio of Sora, Riku, and Kairi noticed how Axel was frozen in place. Riku was the first to follow him through the doorway and he also froze as he saw the boy.

"What is it?" Sora asked as he quickly caught up.

"It's…. Roxas," Axel breathed. He started walking to the chair.

"He can't be Roxas," Riku stated, confused, "He went back to Sora."

Axel stood in front of the boy. He briefly noticed Roxas's clothes were different than before, but the fact Roxas was back and safe eclipsed any other thoughts.

Kairi approached the boy, "No… that isn't Roxas… how would he have gotten in here? This place has been sealed shut for years."

The boy's face twitched, eyebrows scrunching briefly as he shifted. He mumbled something before his eyes briefly opened and shut again.

"Did opening this place wake him up?" Sora wondered.

Kairi put a hand on the boy's shoulder, "Hey… wake up sleepy head." She didn't want to jar the poor kid out of sleep but at the same time she was pretty curious of how he had gotten in there.

She pulled back as the boy's legs stretched out, followed by an arm, and then his whole body twisted to stretch, "Why did you guys let me fall asleep here? This chair is as hard as a rock." His eyes opened as he finished stretching out. "You guys aren't Aqua and Terra…."

Axel stared in disbelief, "Roxas…?"

The boy looked to Axel and put a hand to his chin, eyes narrowing, "You're…." his eyebrows shot up and his eyes widened, "Lea? Is that you? How… What…. You're taller?"

Taken aback, Axel stared in shock.

Riku looked between the two, "Wait, is that Roxas?"

The boy stood up, "Who's Roxas?" He waved his hands in front of him, "Wait before we go into people who aren't here, who're you guys? My name is-"

"Ventus…" Axel stated, still seeming like he was struggling to process what was happening.

Ventus looked back at him, "So you are Lea. Why do you look older?"

Sora shifted on his feet and opened his mouth but didn't the chance to say anything as Kairi spoke up. "Ventus… "

He grinned, "Call me Ven!"

"Ven…" she corrected, "I don't know how to say this but… you've been asleep in here for a while…"

Riku spoke up, "It's been around ten years…"

Ven froze, "But… Aqua, Terra… where are they?"

Kairi's face saddened, "We aren't sure… we only found you through luck."

"What do you mean found?" Ven asked. His panic was growing. He thought he was dreaming but at the memories were becoming clearer he knew they had fought Xehanort but he didn't know what had happened after.

"Aqua… she's trapped…" Riku said.

"Where? How do we get her back?" Ven asked. It seemed like he was on the brink of tears. The knowledge of the time gap, not knowing the fate of his friends during his sleep, it was so much.

"We're working on it," Kairi said, putting her hand on his arm. "We've been looking for all three of you. You're the first we found but that means we can find your friends too."

Ven stared at the three strangers in front of him before looking at Axel. He was older, but he was the only person he knew in this strange place. Axel took a moment to register that Ven was hugging him before hugging back.

* * *

The castle hadn't changed by what Larxene and Marluxia could tell. They had opened a portal in the main entrance and didn't seen any signs of people coming through.

"Man this place is really… white…" Demyx said, "Really opens up the place."

Larxene rolled her eyes, "You should see the basement. Pretty sure it was just as obnoxious but the science duo didn't seem to know that lights exist.

Demyx started walking up the stairs to the door, "So I take it the whole place is like this?"

Marluxia followed, "By what we could tell. There was an area that was sealed off with the Masters' symbol but I would assume it was just as white."

Pushing past the door, Demyx wandered around. He had been curious about the place his friends had been assigned to for so long. It was pretty nice. Despite his teasing, it reminded him of the castle which provided a small comfort.

Marluxia tapped his shoulder and gestured down the hall he had been about to pass. "That's where the sealed off section was," he said, "Didn't know if you wanted to see it or not."

Demyx nodded and walked down the hall. He felt calm here. Some sense of normalcy seemed to be providing comfort. Larxene had waltzed off probably to her old room to begin the inevitable cleaning, and the duo hadn't noticed they hadn't taken off their cloaks yet. They needed a moment where it seemed like nothing had changed. Maybe even like if Demyx had been assigned with them.

Marluxia put his hand on Demyx's shoulder as he saw the door was open.

"Wh-" he was shushed by Marluxia as he silently guestured for Demyx to silently follow.

Quietly, they both walked to the door. Marluxia was very confused as that door had been unmovable for so long. He didn't know what had been behind it or how long it was open.

Ven moved back and forcefully rubbed the tears off his face, "So who are you three then?" he asked.

Riku gestured to Kairi, "That's Kairi and I'm Riku."

Sora grinned, "I'm Sora!"

Ventus looked from one face to the next and paused as his eyes passed the doorway. There was a figure peeking into the room. "And who're they?" he questioned.

Axel spun around and out of instinct at seeing a black coat, threw a flaming chakram.

"MARLY, DUCK," a column of water met the chakram an instant before it could hit it's target.

"It's the Organization," Sora stated, summoning his keyblade. His eyes narrowed in determination as the doorway was flung open by the attack revealing Marluxia on the ground some feet behind Demyx, sitar in his arms.


	24. Confrontation

Demyx was on the brink of a panic attack. Not only was he face to face with Sora, the boy had his keyblade out and had the same determined look on his face as when he was killed. Frozen, he didn't notice that Axel had thrown another chakram until Marluxia grabbed him by the waist and yanked him down. Jolted out of his thoughts, Demyx let Arpeggio fade as he scrambled to his feet.

"Get Larx!" Marluxia exclaimed as a rose covered vine slammed the door shut and twined inself into a barrier.

Marluxia lingered for a moment as Demyx ran, making sure the temporary block held long enough for the two to get a head start.

* * *

"Come on!" Sora sprinted to the door and tried to throw it open, finding that vines were holding it shut. Riku and Axel rushed over to help ram it open.

"What's going on?" Ventus questioned. Seeing the figure in black leather made him fear it was Xehanort attacking and not even knowing where his friends were wasn't making the situation any better.

Kairi did her best to sum up the threat, "The Organization. They're a group led by Xehanort. He's trying to use them as-"

"Vessels?" Ventus supplied, hoping he was wrong. The grim expression on Kairi's face confirmed he was right.

The two turned as they heard the doors finally slam open as the vines disappeared.

"They might be after Ventus," Axel guessed. "The others assigned with me knew there was a locked off section and may have realized what the mark on the door was."

The group ran down the hall to confront the two Organization members. Axel was surprised to have seen Demyx as he would have thought he would have been too lazy for the vessel plot but perhaps that meant Xehanort had an easier time taking control over him. The second member that had been there he hadn't been able to see clearly before unbelievable Demyx threw him out of the way and defended against his attack. Guessing by the rose bush that had blocked the way, however, he would have to guess it was Marluxia. Another confusing factor to why Demyx had acted when they hadn't liked each other.

Sora could hear the two enemy's voices distantly as it seemed they were calling to find their ally to regroup. The hold on his keyblade tightened, Marluxia was a dangerous Organization member and he was here with Demyx. One was bad enough but two. Thankfully he knew he and his friends outnumbered them easily unless they had brought more than just one other member with.

Kairi and Riku were all for making allies, but with a possible threat sneaking around they had to act. There was an unknown motive for Marluxia's water wielding friend, but judging by the cloak they could both be vessels of Xehanort.

Still reeling over the fact he had been asleep for ten years, that his friends were lost, that Xehanort was still an active threat, Ventus was ready to fight. He knew the enemy was aligned with the creepy old man that tried to corrupt his friends and forge the x-blade. They had to be defeated.

* * *

Being the faster runner, Demyx was pausing in every doorway trying to spot Larxene as the duo ran through the castle. She hadn't told them where she was going and their best bet was to find her in her room so they could portal out before the group of angry keyblade wielder caught up with them.

"LARX?" Demyx threw open another door before continuing running with Marluxia. "It's a really good time to portal out now!"

Demyx fell hard on the ground as he collided with Larxene as she ran around the corner towards them. Barely avoiding the crash, Marluxia scrambled to stop and held out his hands to help them both up.

"What's going on?" Larxene asked, hand on her head.

Doubled over catching his breath, Marluxia replied, "It's Sora and company. We should have checked the front to see if there was a ship. They opened the door we couldn't get through last time."

Larxene's eyes widened, "Wait did they attack again?"

Demyx frantically nodded, "We've gotta go."

"You're not going anywhere!" Sora yelled as he threw his keyblade.

Caught off guard, Demyx was hit hard in the side and was knocked to the ground. Without missing a beat, Larxene summoned her own keyblade and sprinted to fight head to head with Sora.

"We're outnumbered!" Marluxia yelled at her, "It's best to retreat!"

Riku and Ventus quickly maneuvered around Larxene as she tried to block the hall while fighting Sora. Riku charged and was blocked by Demyx's water as he strummed his Sitar while still on the ground.

Ventus went to take the remaining enemy and stopped in confusion. "Lauriam?"

Marluxia stared, trying to process the fights and the boy standing in front of him. "Roxas?" He shook his head as he saw the backwards hold on the keyblade and armor on his arm, " _Ventus?!_ Wha- How- What are you doing here?!"

Ventus ducked a fireball, "ME? What about you?"

Dodging a burst of lightning, Marluxia was flabbergasted, "Why are you still 12?!"

"I'm 15!" He spared a glance back at the fight, "And you didn't answer what you're doing!"

Marluxia used a vine to yank Demyx out of the way of a strike from Sora, "Trying not to get killed again!"

Ventus looked from the group he just met to the two cloaked people they were fighting, "Who are they?"

" _Not_ Xehanort!" Marluxia exclaimed as he sent a flurry of petals at Riku to cover Larxene as she held off Sora. "There's been a misunderstanding between us and we haven't had a chance to sort this out yet."

There was a moment as Ventus stared at Marluxia before nodding, determined. Without saying another word he ran into the fray and into Axel's line of fire.

"Wha-" Axel changed the trajectory of his throw to avoid Ventus, his fireball streaking between Larxene and Riku, allowing Demyx to douse him in water. The two disengaged from Sora and company and ran back to where Marluxia had opened a portal.

"They're getting away!" Sora charged the portal, almost making it before it disappeared.

Axel turned to Ventus, "What was that?"

Ventus turned to look at one face to the other, all looking at him in disbelief. "I know him!" he defended. "Lauriam is on our side."

The group stared flabbergasted.


	25. A Home

Marluxia opened the portal randomly and found that he had taken the group to one of his favourite worlds: The Enchanted Dominion. Simply stepping foot into the worlds made him begin to calm down. Larxene was still gunning for a fight, but the two quickly found they had a panicked Demyx.

Larxene grabbed his hand and tried to put herself into his field of vision. "Hey!" she tried to calmly say, "It's ok!"

"Sora… keyblade.. Nobody… gonna die.." Demyx's breathing was frantic as he closed in on himself.

"Demyx," Marluxia turned Demyx's head to look him in the eye, "We're right here. We're in the Enchanted Dominion. You're safe."

Demyx's eyes started to focus as he grabbed the two and hugged them tightly. The three stayed where they were as the fear slowly died down.

* * *

"So tell us again how you know Marluxia," Axel demanded, still offended that he had been soaked by Demyx.

"I.." Ven started. His eyebrows pinched in confusion, "Why do you guys hate him?"

Sora crossed his arms, "He's a bad guy, Ven. He tried to mess with my memory and take my keyblade."

"Why would he do that when he already has one?" Ven questioned.

Riku spoke up, "Larxene only got hers recently. We're talking about a couple years ago."

Ven shook his head, "No. He has his own. He was my age last I saw him, maybe a year older, and he was also getting trained."

The group was shocked. "Why doesn't he have it now?" Kairi wondered.

"I lost mine temporarily," Riku reasoned. "When I wasn't sure of myself and then when I was using darkness."

"There you go," Sora said satisfied. "Marluxia is still a baddie. That means we gotta catch him and stop his plan!"

Ven wasn't budging. He had known Lauriam. They were friends. Whatever he had done, is doing now, he must have a reason. "No," he protested. "I trust him. Besides, what about Aqua? Terra? I thought you were looking for them too."

The group was silent for a moment before Riku spoke up. "He does have a point. We can't waste time tracking down three separate people. We need to focus on our original goal."

Relieved, Ven smiled and joined the group as they made their way back to the gummi ship.

* * *

Larxene rolled her neck and stretched out her arms. "Why does it seem like all we ever do is jump from world to world and walk _constantly?_ I feel like a hobo."

Sighing, Demyx joined her sentiment, "I just want a place to sleep where I'm not going to get attacked."

"You two are so dramatic," Marluxia stated. "It's not like we've not had places to spend the night."

"Oh come on Marly, we know you're just as tired of it as we are," Larxene accused as she trudged along the forest path with the other two.

Demyx put his hands together and theatrically called up to the sky, "Kingdom hearts, if you're still there, pleeeease let us stop being hobos!"

"Pretty sure it got destroyed, Dem..." Larxene trailed.

Marluxia stopped and gestured for Demyx and Larxene to follow him off the trail. "I think we've finally caught a lucky break," he smiled.

In the woods, right next to a pleasant stream, was a cottage. It looked like it hadn't been lived in for a while. There were several bird nests, one on top of the chimney, weeds, flowers, and grasses had overtaken the path to the door, a small garden behind looked as if it had been untended for a long time.

Inside, the trio found a dusty but well furnished house. It was simple, but certainly roomy enough for all three to not be stepping on each others' toes. In fact when they explored upstairs, there were four rooms; more than enough.

Demyx seemed to be near tears as he happily jumped onto the bed in the blue dominated room, "I never want to leave this world."

Larxene found herself peering into a light green decorated room and considered it for a moment, "It's not quite my color but… I like it." She declared it her room and walked to the bed before a crushing realization came to her. "I have to clean my room again…." she flopped on the dusty bed in defeat.

Lastly, Marluxia opened the second to last door. He found a room that was heavily pink and found it extremely convenient and actually better than his previous rooms at Castle Oblivion and the World that Never was combined. "I found mine!" he called as he opened his window to begin airing the place out.

After giving a quick clean, Larxene and Marluxia went to see what Demyx was up to, only to find him fast asleep on the dusty blue blanket on his new bed. They closed the door and while Larxene moved to figure out the bottom floor, Marluxia went outside to tidy up the plants outside. He didn't tear up the wildly growing bushes that were blocking the pathway, simply moved them to the side with his control over plants. When he was satisfying with the front being safe from Larxene's frustration when she eventually comes out of the cottage, he moved to the garden.

By the time he was halfway sorting out the vegetable rows from the spice plants and tomatoes from the zucchini, he heard a squawk as Larxene shooed the bird and nest from the chimney.

"Larx! Be-" Marluxia winced as the bird dove and caused the sparking girl to fall off the roof with the nest. "-careful."

It only took a couple of hours once Demyx woke up and started using his water to clean the floors faster, and the trio was thrilled they had someplace that wasn't whitewashed like the Organization or out in the wilderness without a roof.

"Please promise we never have to leave," Demyx said as he stuffed his face with the roasted vegetables they made for dinner. "I love it here."

Larxene leaned back in her chair, "I could use a couple upgrades in terms of having electric lights but that bed is super comfortable."

"I don't want to be the bearer of bad news," Marluxia started, "but there is still a war coming."

Demyx deflated, "I know… but can't we stop thinking about it for a week? Maybe two?"

"Unfortunately I don't think we can," Marluxia stated. "There's too much that needs to be done. Aqua can still be found before the war starts. We'll need another keyblade master on our side if we want to win."

Larxene scrunched her face, "I'm on Dem's side here. Maybe not a week, but I want a day or two without any war or keyblade talk. Stuff's going to go down and we won't have as much quiet time."

"Alright," agreed Marluxia. "Two days. Then we need to start planning."


End file.
